Wyoming Democratic Party statement on Bush's veto of Iraq spending bill

Contact:  Bill Luckett, Executive Director   307-473-1457 (office)   307-473-1459 (fax)  

FROM THE WYOMING DEMOCRATIC PARTY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 1, 2007

Contact: Bill Luckett

Communications director

307-631-7638

Wyoming Democratic Party statement on Bush's veto of Iraq spending bill

CHEYENNE - Wyoming Democratic Party Communications Director Bill Luckett issued the following statement today upon President Bush's veto of Iraq war spending legislation:

"Today, the president faced a choice between heeding the call of the American people and a bipartisan majority in Congress to change course in Iraq, or keeping our troops mired in an open-ended civil war. Sadly, with his veto of the Iraq spending legislation, the president has ignored military experts, the Iraq Study Group and the American people who agree with the Democratic plan.

"Democrats in Congress will continue efforts to do whatever it takes to get the president to see that a military solution to this war is unrealistic without a political, diplomatic and economic strategy. The president has put our troops in the middle of an endless Iraqi civil war, and America is less secure today because of the mismanagement and high costs of this war.

"The Democratic plan fully funds our troops, provides a plan to reasonably end the war, and requires Iraqis to take control of their own country. We urge Senators Enzi and Thomas and Representative Cubin to join congressional Democrats in answer the call of the American people and working to end this war as quickly as possible."

FACT SHEET:

According to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 56 percent agree more with the Democrats who want to set a deadline for troop withdrawal. [NBC/Wall Street Journal, 4/26/07]

Number of Wyoming active duty service members in Iraq: 692

Number of Wyoming reserve forces in Iraq: 352

Number of service-members killed in Iraq: 9

Number of service-members wounded in Iraq: 79

Cost of war to the people of Wyoming: $648.8 million

[Sources: Department of Defense Contingency Tracking Service Deployment File, 1/31/07; Department of Defense Personnel Statistics; nationalpriorities.org]

-END-