Richardson: De-Authorize the War Now, No Residual Troops

Out of all of the candidates Gov. Bill Richardson has had the most consistent and strongest message against the Iraq war. He has the one of the best resumes amongst the Democratic fields when it comes to foreign policy.

He added to it this week when he created a new website called No Troops Left Behind and started an online petition that said we should leave no troops in Iraq, bring the troops out in 6 months, and have Congress end the war now.

Richardson had this to say in a post at the Huffington Post in May...

Congress should de-authorize the war today and demand that the President begin redeploying our troops. There would be no need to negotiate the withdrawal with the President, and he could not veto the resolution.

The time has has come for Congress to stand up to this President who refuses to recognize that his war is bleeding our military and weakening our country. He believes mere stubbornness is a foreign policy and that he can just ignore the will of the American people. In the interest of our national security, he must be stopped.

Congress has the ability to end this war under the War Powers Act -- let's not wait or waver while more people die. And de-authorizing the war should mean removing all our troops. Every last one.

This is essential, because our presence in Iraq worsens the violence and enables our enemies to portray us as imperialist occupiers. If we announce that we are getting out completely, we undercut this propaganda. We need to get all our troops out of the crossfire of this civil war.

Anything less than immediate de-authorization, and beginning the process to remove all troops, is not a real plan to end this war. I know this region well, and understand how people there see the world.

He adds more at his speech from Take Back America Conference earlier this week.