NM Sen. Ortiz y Pino to Call for Withdrawing Our Troops from Iraq

The New Mexico Senate Democrats have issued a press release announcing that NM Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino will introduce a Senate Memorial this session calling for withdrawing our troops from Iraq. Click to download a PDF of the document. Excerpts:

In announcing his decision, Senator Ortiz y Pino pointed to the service and sacrifices of New Mexico's National Guard troops who have been placed in harm's way by the federal government. The Memorial is designed to draw the attention of the public and the federal Administration to the difficulties US troops are facing both abroad and at home. Over 72 cities have endorsed resolutions of their own calling for an end to US involvement in Iraq.

... New Mexico has felt the heavy impacts of the war in Iraq. Because President Bush deployed New Mexico's Army and Air National Guard to seek nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and on the basis of a pretended link to September 11th, over 3,000 New Mexican Guardsmen have already served in Iraq -- some more than once. Nationally, the Department of Defense has reported that National Guard and Reserve troops are being called up at three times their sustainable rate.

... According to Senator Ortiz y Pino, "What was once paraded before the American public as the most serious threat facing our national security has now become a tar baby that needlessly threatens American lives and our national solvency." The intractable nature of the Iraq war has diminished the federal budget resources that could otherwise be employed to address other national budgetary priorities. In an attempt to control the resulting surge of deficit spending, the new Congress has decided to employ the continuing resolution process.

"It is time for us to forthrightly face the truth that confronts us and to bravely do what that truth calls for -- and so I am introducing a Memorial to do just that. And one that points out that the President may also have violated federal law by his actions" concluded Senator Ortiz y Pino.