Dear Congressman:

I am writing to ask you to support Congressman Murtha's call for withdrawal from Iraq as soon as is humanly possible. I listened to his speech yesterday, and he is absolutely correct.

The United States invaded Iraq based on false pretenses, namely that Iraq had a vast stockpile of banned weapons, was close to building a nuclear warhead, and was in league with Al-Qaeda.

The first assertion, involving chemical and biological weapons, is the most difficult. In a nutshell, the Administration chose to believe the tall tales of Iraqi exiles such as convicted embezzler Ahmed Chalabi and the known fabricator code-named "Curveball." They credited these unreliable sources over the CIA and other American intelligence agencies, who insisted that any data regarding WMD was scarce, speculative, and inconclusive.

The President and the Administration knew that those second two allegations - nuclear weapons and Al-Qaeda ties - were false at the time they made them.

The American people did not all realize that the Bush Administration was lying, but the Iraqi people certainly knew it -- and, because they know that the invasion was launched on false pretenses, the Iraqis see us as conquerors instead of liberators. Any thoughts to the contrary -- and gratitude that we liberated them from Saddam Hussein -- were destroyed at Abu Ghraib. The result: every poll has shown that 80-90% of the Iraqi people want us to leave. Our continued presence there is fueling the insurgency, not defeating it.

Congressman Murtha is entirely correct in his assessment that the United States has achieved our objectives. Iraq was hardly a threat before the war, and it is not one now by any stretch of the imagination. Iraq has passed a Constitution and is on the eve of another democratic election. Saddam Hussein is in prison and is facing trial for his crimes. It is time for our soldiers to come home.

Unfortunately, I have heard that Congresswoman Pelosi has caved in to pressure from the reactionary Republican leadership and will not take a stand to end the war. Please continue your courageous and patriotic opposition to the Iraq war, and please support our troops by doing everything you can to bring them home as quickly as possible. Too many thousands have died because of Bush Administration lies. It is neither noble nor courageous to demand that of any other soldier. Withdrawing from Iraq would make our country safer and enable us to continue the real fight against terrorists.

Thank you for everything you have done to save our soldiers and protect our nation. Don't give up.

Yours sincerely,

C. Colvin