Petition to Rumsfeld Updated

I'm a little annoyed with the Junior Senator from California at the moment but I'll get over it. I wish both our Senators had taken a stand, even a losing one on the Patriot Act. Even with the meaningless modifications, it's still evil. We have to get our act together or the polls won't matter. We have to stand for something.

Now that I have that out of my system:

The link in the title will take you to the petition she plans to present personally to Rumsfeld.

I have fixed my browser (I think). Here is the text of her letter to me today.

Over just the past week, in the wake of the February 22nd bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, more than 400 people have been killed and more than 500 injured in Iraq. All Americans, and indeed people around the globe, are increasingly alarmed by this tragic, rapidly escalating violence.

Now our brave men and women in uniform are caught in the middle of an increasingly violent religious conflict between the Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq -- and the situation is in real danger of spiraling into a full-scale civil war.

President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld can't continue to bury their heads in the sand about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Iraq. It's time for them to wake up to the facts and plan for the worst: how to get our troops out from the middle of a potential civil war.

Urge Secretary Rumsfeld to develop a plan for getting our troops out of the middle of an Iraqi civil war -- and to share that plan with Congress. Sign my petition today!

While we all hope for the best, clearly it's only prudent to plan for the worst -- especially with the lives of hundreds of thousands of American troops increasingly at risk.

That's why I wrote to Secretary Rumsfeld last week, urging him to produce a plan for the worst-case scenario of full-scale civil war in Iraq.

Given this Administration's past failure to plan for the Iraqi insurgency after the American invasion, we can't take anything for granted. It seems that the Bush Administration can only see things through rose-colored glasses. And that's clearly not acceptable with American lives on the line.

So it's up to us to hold this Administration accountable -- and demand that they be proactive for a change. I'm going to deliver our petition directly to Secretary Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. Won't you join me?

Sign my petition to Secretary Rumsfeld today, and urge him to develop a plan for protecting our troops in the event of a full-scale Iraqi civil war!

We can't afford for President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to be caught by surprise again.

And the only way we'll know that they're prepared is if they develop a plan for dealing with an Iraqi civil war -- and share that plan with the relevant committees in Congress, so the American people can be reassured that the Bush Administration is ahead of the curve, for a change.

Our brave servicemen and women deserve no less than the very best from their civilian leaders. With your help and vigilance, we'll make sure that's what they get.

We can't leave them in the middle of a security situation in Iraq that is rapidly spiraling out of control.

It reads like she is looking for signatures nationwide, not just California. I sign almost everything on the theory "what can it hurt".

Ann