Military Families Speak Out
Michigan Chapter

Dear Senator:

My son is a Marine who will deploy to Iraq for the third time next March. While it is comforting to finally see some movement in Washington toward bringing our troops home and ending our involvement in that disaster, I am extremely concerned that an improperly conducted drawdown could expose units remaining in Iraq to an increased, not reduced, level of danger.

John, my son, will deploy in March as part of a 13-man all-arms training unit to be embedded with an Iraqi unit somewhere in Anbar Province. These Marine and Army training units appear to be the Pentagon's newest, high-priority solution-du-jour for Iraq. Needless to say, these small isolated units will be out on a very long limb already, with their security mainly dependent on Iraqi forces, not U.S. But as larger U.S. combat units begin drawing down, the danger these training units will face will increase even more.

Assuming that a U.S. drawdown does begin next year, the safety of these left-behind embedded units must be safeguarded by American units. This will require that any combat drawdown be managed with the safety of these training and support troops uppermost in mind.

I am sure you have considered and discussed this possibility as ranking member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee. Could you therefore tell me what precautions are being considered to safeguard the safety of American non-combat units left in Iraq during, and after, a drawdown of the combat brigades? Can you provide some assurance that the safety of the marines, soldiers and sailors assigned to these training units will not be overlooked amid the widespread enthusiasm over a drawdown? I hope so.

More fundamentally, I guess, I would like to ask you why my son, or any family's son, should even be sent to Iraq anymore. There never was a valid reason for this war, except in Bush's cowboy imagination, but there is even less of a point now. John has done his duty twice; has been decorated twice, once for valor under fire; and has witnessed some of the bloodiest horrors imaginable. Why should his life and limb be put on the line once again when even his generals acknowledge that Iraq is "lost." How many more American troops must sacrifice their life or their limbs performing what has become a face-saving mission?

Maybe you can't answer that. Perhaps you don't want to try. But Rep. Dennis Kucinich took a stab at it today on the floor of the House.

"The American public did not vote for the Iraq Study Group," he told the House. "They voted for a new Congress and a new direction in Iraq - - out.
"'We will not abandon the troops in the field,' some solemnly pronounce, while continuing to fund a war that even generals say cannot be won militarily. Well, we have abandoned the troops in the field already. We have abandoned them to lies about why the war was being fought. We have abandoned them to getting shot from all sides. We have left them in a type of hell while we profess a strange love for them by keeping them there.
"Stop wasting money. Stop wasting lives. Bring the troops home now. Cut off any more funds for the war."

Perhaps that is what you and your Senate colleagues ought to be thinking about.

Thank you Senator.

Sincerely,

James R. Crate

If you want to contact Carl Levin, he can be reached as follows:

Levin, Carl- (D - MI)
269 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6221
Web Form: http:// levin.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm