Florida Veterans for Common Sense endorses verified voting
SARASOTA -- Fifty-two of Florida's 67 counties use voter-verified paper ballots for their elections. The Florida Veterans for Common Sense is working to make sure that Sarasota County is the 53rd county to do so. More than 12,000 Sarasota voters have signed a petition to place this issue on the ballot this November and a Circuit Judge Robert Bennet has cleared it to appear on the ballot. The supervisor of elections has certified that the requirement for placing this on the ballot has been met and that this citizen initiative may move forward. We now urge the county commissioners to put this on the ballot. The non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law has identified over 120 potential threats to the most commonly used electronic voting systems including the one used in Sarasota County. While there is no evidence of voter fraud in Sarasota county to date, the potential is there, and there is considerable evidence of voter fraud elsewhere in Florida and in many locations around the country. Contact the county commissioners by phone,letter or email and urge them to place this on the ballot in November. Then, vote for and get your friends to vote for this on the November ballot. For Democracy to work every vote must be counted and we must have a paper trail to be sure that every vote is counted correctly.
- alternate comments from supervisor of elections -
FLORIDA VETERANS FOR COMMON SENSE (IRAQ WAR POSITION PAPER)
The blast in February that blew apart the 100-year-old gilded dome of the Shiite Askariya Shrine in Samarra and brought the country to the brink of disaster cast in stark relief our war in Iraq. We realized three things: We do not have the power to stop a civil war, and we already are involved if one begins. Most importantly, we need to refocus, and redouble, our efforts to combat terrorism.
We are fighting against relatively few terrorists in Iraq and many Sunni nationalists. Those nationalists, who are waging an effective insurgency because of the passivity or help from the Sunni population, are one of the two major sides in a civil conflict.
The group we have empowered, the Shia, have militias that are blamed for kidnappings and murders, and they are wearing the uniform of the new government we enabled to take power.
We have accomplished much. A brutal dictator has been toppled, three elections have been held, each one more successful than the preceding one, and we have trained tens of thousands of Iraqi police and military. But, the cost has been high. Thousands of Americans are dead or horribly wounded as are tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. And sectarian violence has been added to a situation that seems to be spiraling out of control.
Our reconstruction effort has failed. It obviously is going to take much longer than expected. Billions of dollars are unaccounted for, corruption charges and allegations of corruption have been made against Americans and Iraqis, and some basic services are not even back to pre-invasion levels. Immediately, we should begin transferring reconstruction to the control of the United Nations.
And, we should have a plan now to begin bringing our troops home. All American troops should be out by the end of 2007. It is clear that they have done their duty and now it is up the Iraqis.
Musab al-Zarqawi is dead, and we should concentrate solely on eliminating the remaining terrorists in the coming months, and let the Iraqis sort out problems between the Sunni and Shia and Kurds. Our military leaders and diplomats have said that we need to peel the Iraqi nationalists away from the terrorists. In fact, there already have been discussions with representatives of the insurgents, an attempt to bring them into the new government.
We should do this because we are in a struggle against terrorists and their fanatical worldwide ideology.The draw-down in Iraq could re-focus our military soley on capturing or killing terrorists where they stand and tracing their support back to the countries from whence it came. In Afghanistan as well as Iraq, we need to deal with that support, including the supply of new terrorists, at the source.
This means a diminishing foot print for the American military in Iraq, which means fewer targets for the insurgents and the terrorists. We should immediately begin turning over the forts we have built to show that we do not mean to stay as a conquering power. We can leave in stages, keeping until the last those forts needed for the safety of our troops. Should we need to provide help against the terrorists in Iraq after 2007, that support should be under the aegis of the United Nations or NATO or some other umbrella group. As we pull out, the State Department needs to initiate talks with countries in the region, regardless of our differences with Iran or Syria. Their leaders and leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others need stability for their own security. And, those talks facilitated by the United Nations should eventually include the larger world body of muslim countries such as Indonesia so that they can provide military support for the new Iraq government against insurgents.
Americans have an increasingly clear picture of what is happening in Iraq, and what is needed to resolve the situation. But, clarity brings questions as well as answers. An 18-year-old kid off the streets of New York or a farm in Georgia can be trained as a Marine in 13 weeks, so why don't we have robust military and police forces in Iraq after two and a half years of training?
The Marine knows who his government is and what he is fighting for.
The Iraqi doesn't. We can't change that. Only the Iraqis can.
Florida Veterans for Common Sense
27 Fletcher Ave
Sarasota, FL 34237
phone: 941 349-5131
email:FLveterans@aol.com