Ellison: Even Iraqi Leaders Think Reconciliation is Unattainable

Rep. Keith Ellison renewed his call for an immediate pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq after a top Iraqi official said reconciliation is unattainable among warring factions in his country.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told the Washington Post Monday that he doesn’t think “there’s something called reconciliation…it’s a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power.”

Ellison, a first-term Democrat, joined more than 80 colleagues who recently sent a letter to President Bush affirming that they will only vote for funding aimed at ending the war.

“If the very government our young men and women are fighting and dying for are not interested in bringing an end to the sectarian violence in their own country, then no amount of ‘surges’ or ‘troop enhancements’ will bring peace to Iraq,”  said Ellison in a written statement. “Five years ago… the House voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq.  Five years and nearly 4,000 young American lives cut short, with another 28,000 grievously wounded — and for what?  A government that no longer — if it ever did – believes in itself?”The Iraqi government achieved only three of the 18 benchmarks established by the Bush administration to measure political reconciliation. A turmoil that led to the resignation of almost half of  Iraq’s cabinet ministers has erupted, further complicating matters for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

A fierce critic of the war, Ellison said he saw some progress when he visited Iraq in the summer and met with tribal elders.

Localizing the price tag

Minnesota has poured some $11 billion, of which $3 billion came from Hennepin County, into the war, said Ellison in his statement. The overall price tag of the war is hovering around half a trillion dollars.

“At what cost?” asked Ellison. “We had a bridge collapse in my district this summer.  Bridges aren’t supposed to fall down in America. But they do when [four and half] billion [dollars] over the past five years is being diverted to a country that we invaded under false pretenses… It’s (long overdue) time to bring our troops home.”

Ellison said the U.S. government should follow the footsteps of Britain, which announced last week it will slash its number of troops in half in a few months, bringing its total down to 2,500.