President George W. Bush’s call for increasing the number of U.S. soldiers to be sent to Iraq met with mixed reactions and a local protest Thursday.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski sent a letter to Bush on Wednesday night formally opposing Bush’s plan for an additional 21,500 U.S. soldiers to the current number of 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Kulongoski wrote that a troop increase might mean having to send more Oregon National Guard troops to sustain U.S. forces, placing further burden on their families and employers.
The Oregon National Guard currently has 8,500 troops in the Air Force and Army, with 1,100 troops deployed to Afghanistan and no troops in Iraq, said Kay Fristad, a spokeswoman for the Oregon National Guard.
About 755 Oregon National Guard troops, the highest deployment to date, were in Iraq in 2004-05, she said.
In separate press releases, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio also said they opposed Bush’s plan to send more troops, with DeFazio calling it a more of the same strategy that is not working.
Republican Sen. Gordon H. Smith echoed a similar criticism by calling the plan a “Hail Mary pass” in a press release, referring to a football pass that is made in desperation with a limited chance of success.
Smith is opposed to the current policy, because U.S. troops need to be focused on fighting the terrorists from other countries that are setting up bases in Iraq, said Smith spokesman R.C. Hammond.
Smith supports putting the Iraqis in charge of maintaining security in the country, Hammond said.
At the University, debate seemed to split along more partisan lines.
College Democrats President Ben Lenet said he was disappointed with the speech, saying that Bush has no plan to bring the troops home.
“I have not seen any experts that say this will end with anything other than additional violence,” Lenet said. “He has made no mention of any other plan if this doesn’t work.”
College Republicans member Nik Antovich said he expected Bush to call for more troops because it was inevitable.
“My only regret is that (Bush) didn’t talk about it earlier, but as far as that particular speech, I thought he did the best he could,” Antovich said.
The Iraqis should take over as soon as possible, but any time for withdrawing troops should be evaluated by November, he said
“We can’t leave Iraq in the state the country is in right now, as it would only lead to an escalation of the insurgency,” he said.
Bush’s plan, however, was not without some protest at the local level as around 100 people gathered in front of the Eugene Federal Building to protest the plan, despite the snow flurries Thursday.
Michael Carrigan, a peace organizer for the Community Alliance of Lane County, said the rally was organized in response to an e-mail message from the liberal group MoveOn.org, which encouraged people to speak out against Bush’s plan to escalate the number of troops in Iraq.
Carrigan said he was planning to attend further protests in Eugene and in Washington D.C. He also planned to keep contacting Wyden, Smith and DeFazio to encourage them to cut war funding and bring the troops home.
“We want them to do all they can to bring (the war) to an end,” Carrigan said.
Longtime Eugene resident Stewart Meyers said he had never been to a peace rally before, but he decided to attend partially in response to Bush’s speech. He compared attending the event to a hummingbird trying to put out a fire, but he said he would do whatever he could to make a difference.
“I think if enough people get upset, maybe this administration or Congress would cut off funds, but I’m not counting on it,” Meyers said.
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