Lobbying Ray Lahood (R-IL) on Iraq.

I was among several peace activists who met with Congressman Ray LaHood in his Springfield office.  LaHood, to his credit allowed each of us to make a short presentation, and we hit all the main points- the loss of lives, the WMD deception, the expense, the will of the Iraqi people.

Then LaHood spoke and it was sadly clear that he was still drunk on Wingnut Koolaid.   According to LaHood:

*   We will maintain a military presence in Iraq for at least 50 more years- as long as we were in Germany or Japan.

*   We invaded from the highest motives of toppling an evil dictator.   Our motives have nothing to do with oil, and current high oil prices establish that we are not trying to take over Iraqi oil.

*   The Iraqi people love us (yep, he said that).   They love us in Baghdad because we keep opening new hospitals.

*   Our invasion was authorized by the UN Security Counil  (at this point I shook my head, which peeved LaHood  :-) )

*    The troops are strongly behind the mission, which he knows from having visited the wounded at Bethesda.

The whole encounter left me feeling sick, hopeless, and frightened.  I mean, LaHood is supposed to be a moderate.  Is the political establishment still hell-bent on following this disastrous course right over the cliff?  

Bad, bad.