Calls For End to Iraq War, Investment in America

SAINT PAUL [06/16/08] - The Al Franken for U.S. Senate campaign today released a new television ad calling for an end to the war in Iraq and arguing for renewed investment in American education, health care, jobs, and infrastructure. The ad, “Invest Here,” will run in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Duluth, Rochester, and Mankato - on broadcast and cable - beginning tomorrow.

It can be viewed online here:
http://www.alfranken.com/InvestHere

Al Franken said:

“We’re spending $400 million a day in Iraq while Minnesota families struggle to make ends meet in the Bush-Coleman Recession - and Washington politicians refuse to change course. We simply can’t move forward on important priorities at home if we continue to ’stay the course’ in Iraq.”

He added:

“Nobody wants a precipitous withdrawal; we have to put more thought and planning into how we get out of Iraq than we put into how we went in. But we can’t afford to keep short-changing important priorities at home. And the only leverage we have left to get the Iraqi government to take care of its priorities is to end George W. Bush’s open-ended war policy.”

Recent reports have suggested that the Iraqi government is financially capable of taking the lead on reconstruction projects, but unwilling to do so as long as the U.S. continues its open-ended commitment. Senator Carl Levin recently reported to the Senate Armed Services Committee:

“During my recent trip to Iraq, just before the latest outbreak of violence, a senior U.S. military officer told me that when he asked an Iraqi official, ‘Why is it that we’re using our U.S. dollars to pay your people to clean up your towns instead of you using your funds?’, the Iraqi replied, ‘As long as you are willing to pay for the clean-up, why should we do it?’”

Senator Levin also noted that “Iraq now has tens of billions of dollars in surplus funds in their banks and in accounts around the world, including about $30 billion in U.S. banks.”

And the New York Times recently reported on a Pentagon audit showing that $8.2 billion in taxpayer funds were spent with “a lack of accountability notable even by the shaky standards detailed in earlier examinations of contracting in Iraq.”

For a hi-res headshot of Al, go here:
http://www.alfranken.com/page/content/media

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.