WASHINGTON, D.C. - A leading national figure in the anti-war movement, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) is organizing a Congressional forum to examine the costs associated with the continued occupation of Iraq.  The event, scheduled for next Tuesday, will bring together Members of Congress with some of the leading experts in the fields of intelligence, military affairs, humanitarian work, and veterans’ affairs.

“I’m organizing this forum because President Bush’s Iraq Policy has been an absolute failure, and our nation will suffer its effects for years to come” Woolsey said.  “It has not only ruined our nation’s credibility in the eyes of the world, but it has made us worse off economically and militarily as well.”

The forum, which is scheduled for Tuesday, September 26th, will offer a broad examination of the costs associated with the continued occupation.  In particular, a 30-year veteran of the CIA Dr. Pillar will address the escalating civil war, and Ret. Lt. General William Odom (who served as the Director of the NSA under President Reagan) will address the importance of changing America’s strategic posture in the region, beginning with the urgent need to remove U.S. troops from Iraq.  The forum will also feature representatives from Save the Children, and the National Priorities Project, as well as veterans groups, each of whom will touch upon one of the, many, unmet national priorities that are not being addressed here at home, while the US spends over $300 billion in Iraq.

“The people of my district are paying almost $930 million towards this unjust war,” Woolsey said.  “This is real money that we could be using to address the problems facing our nation, instead of taking an unjust, and horrifically costly war.”

This is the third in a series of Congressional forums organized by Woolsey over the past year examining the President’s Iraq policy.  The first member of Congress to demand that we withdraw our troops from Iraq, Woolsey has been a leading figure against the continued military occupation of Iraq.