Emergency Town Hall Meeting for MD-8th District

We, the undersigned constituents of Maryland District 8, are writing to request your presence at an emergency Town Hall Meeting to discuss the urgent need for Congress to take action to end the war in Iraq. It has become clear that President Bush has no intention of responding to the November election mandate to withdraw troops from Iraq. Instead, he is escalating the war with a troop surge and heightening threats toward Iran potentially provoking a larger regional war. Therefore, we must rely on your actions and the actions of other Congressional representatives to ensure that a rash and dangerous course of action is not taken.

Like every state in the union, Maryland has already suffered the high cost of this war. Fifty- eight (58) Maryland residents have lost their lives (http://icasualties.org/oif/USMap.aspx) and over three hundred more have been wounded in this illegal and immoral war a war that we now know was predicated on lies to the American public. The cost to Maryland taxpayers is up to $7.1 billion with Montgomery County having paid $1.6 billion and Prince Georges County paying $1.1 billion (http://costofwar.com/index.html.) On February 5th, President Bush introduced his 2008 budget with an 11\% increase in the Defense Department budget and another $93.4 billion emergency supplemental for the war in Iraq in 2007 (Chicago Tribune, 2/6/07). It is time to put an end to this irresponsible and misguided policy.

The urgency of the situation, and the depth and breadth of constituent concern, leads us to request an emergency Town Hall Meeting. We feel this would be the best vehicle available to enable District 8 residents to hear your views on the matter and provide our input to the important decisions you will be making regarding future Iraq policy.

We are hoping that such a meeting can be organized either in late February or early March of this year. We are eager to work with you and your staff to arrange a time, date and place for the proposed Town Hall Meeting as soon as possible. Please communicate your response to our representative Mary Parker at (301) 927-6216 or e-mail [email protected]

Thank you for your time and attention to this most important matter!