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One week after George W. Bush told the nation he would commit 20,000 additional troops to fight on the ground in Iraq, the Bay Area peace community got the bold response it wanted to hear. 

On Wednesday Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland-Berkeley, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-San Rafael and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives the Bring the Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act that would get U.S. troops out of Iraq within six months. 

“The longer the U.S. stays in Iraq, the worse things get,” Lee told the Daily Planet in a brief phone interview Wednesday.  

More than 3,000 U.S. troops and more than 34,000 Iraqis have died, she said. “We need to bring home our troops. We won’t leave young men and women in harm’s way like this president has done.”  

The bill, supported by 12 co-sponsors, goes beyond the bills introduced separately Wednesday by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to halt deployment of more troops to Iraq. 

The Lee-Woolsey-Waters bill would: 

• Repeal the authorization to use force against Iraq passed by Congress in 2002; 

• Require the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors within six months of the enactment of this bill; 

• Turn security activities and military operations in Iraq over to the elected Iraqi government within six months of enactment; military facilities built by the United States will be turned over to the Iraqi government; 

• Prohibit the U.S. from establishing permanent bases in Iraq; 

• Accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi military and security forces;  

• Pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy;  

• Provide assistance to the Iraqi government in recovering archeological, cultural and historic artifacts that have been lost since the U.S. invasion;  

• Fully fund veterans’ health care.  

• Prohibit U.S. access to Iraqi oil production prior to the Iraqi government’s establishing clear rules for foreign ownership and participation. 

While Woolsey and Lee are co-chairs of the 62-member Progressive Caucus and Waters is the co-chair and founder of the Out of Iraq Caucus, Lee said she and her co-authors need the help of the local community: “Contact other members of the California delegation. They need to come in as co-sponsors.”  

And go to demonstrations, she said: “Keep up the street heat. E-mail. Make phone calls. Our community leads all the time.” 

None of the local peace activists contacted by the Daily Planet—members of Grandmothers Against the War, the UC Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission, the Watada Support Committee, Peace Action West—thought the proposed act would bring an end to the bloodshed on its own, but all saw it as an opening. 

“I hope it gets attention and discussion,” said Steve Freedkin, who chairs Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission and hosts the internet site Progressive Portal. 

“It’s not likely to pass,” Freedkin added, putting the burden of stopping the war on the community. “It’s our job to create the political climate” where bills such as this can be approved, he said. Individuals need to lobby fellow citizens and legislators beyond Berkeley, he added, where citizens voted by 70 percent to impeach Bush in November. 

Grace Shimizu, spokesperson for the newly-formed Watada Support Committee/APIs (Asian Pacific Islanders) Resist! called the draft act a “wonderful bill.”  

“Finally the Democrats in congress have a response to the demand of the American people to put an end the occupation in Iraq,” she said, noting that it would not only bring the troops home in six months, but also fund their health care, “recognizing the trauma they’ve been under and the injuries they’ve faced.” 

Shimizu added praise for Lee, Waters and Woolsey. “It is no surprise that it is these three congresswomen who are posing a challenge to their colleagues. I hope Congress steps up to the plate.” 

Helen Isaacson of Berkeley and 150 of her friends—Grandmothers Against the War from 21 states—are in Washington, D.C. lobbying Congress to end the war in Iraq. Speaking to the Planet by phone on Wednesday Isaacson said that, while the “grannies brigade” is visiting mostly the offices of senators, the four grandmothers from California planned to visit the office of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, on Thursday and would add the Lee-Woolsey-Waters bill to their anti-war lobbying efforts. 

Erin Sikorsky, state political director with Berkeley-based Peace Action West called the proposed legislation an “excellent bill.” Peace Action has long supported “full withdrawal,” she said. “Barbara Lee has been out front for a long time.” 

Legislation such as this bill could have the effect of “pushing Congress further and further to withdrawal,” she said. “It can change the debate in Congress.”