Dear Senator Kerry:

We are grateful to Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson, of Military Families Speak Out, for bringing our letter to you. As constituents and the loving parents of a wonderful Army daughter now courageously serving her country in Iraq, we would like to urge you in the strongest possible terms to bring our troops home now.

We are very concerned about the increasingly negative consequences for our nation of the continued presence of our troops in Iraq. Citizens from all walks of life, all political persuasions and all backgrounds are becoming convinced of the tragic costs of keeping our troops on the ground in Iraq. Some of these costs can be measured and include budget-balancing cutbacks in services to those most in need: the poor, the elderly and our veterans. Other costs include the precious lives of our service personnel, and these are incalculable.

Our incursion into Iraq was based on faulty intelligence and deliberate cherry-picking of material to make a case for an unnecessary pre-emptive war, unprecedented in America’s history. Serious misgivings were apparent from the start, and this has been extremely troubling to us as the proud but anxious parents of a daughter in uniform. She is in harm’s way every minute that she is there.

Prosecution of this war is eroding our Constitution. Many Senators and Representatives have recently stated that, if they knew then what they know now, they would not have voted for the war. Yet many people have come to ask, how is it that ordinary citizens with far fewer resources than the Congress knew the decision to go to war in Iraq was flawed, based on bad information, but that the Congress was unable to come to this all but self-evident conclusion for itself. Was Congress “managed” or “handled” by those making the case for war? If so, has the time not come---at last, at long last---to stand up and oppose this practice and its tragic outcome for our country?

Paul Pillar, former deputy chief of the Counterterrorist Center at the Central Intelligence Agency, now teaching at Georgetown University, warned the Administration before the invasion of Iraq that it would likely endure an unacceptably violent transition period. That warning has been amply vindicated. Current circumstances make it clear that a military strategy of “waiting for victory” is not appropriate. The time has long since come for political and diplomatic solutions. Our troops have already done far more than should ever have been expected of them. As some of your colleagues in the Congress have aptly noted, homeward redeployment of our troops may actually calm the violence and thus allow the Iraqis to move ahead to establish a self-sustaining government.

As constituents and the proud parents of an Army soldier, we urgently request that you stand up to address this issue by working in Congress to bring our troops home now. We sincerely believe that such action would be in keeping with your oath of office to defend the Constitution of the United States. Thank you for making this issue your first priority as our Senator.

Sincerely,

Military Parents, Needham, MA