Statement
by Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Illinois), March 22, 2004
MARCH
22, 2004
SCHAKOWSKY WARNS BUSH ADMINISTRATION AGAINST
EXPANDING THE NUMBER OF U.S. MILITARY AND PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS
IN COLOMBIA
CHICAGO, IL – U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today
warned against proposed plans by the Bush Administration to expand
U.S. military involvement in Colombia. Schakowsky opposes a plan
by the Bush Administration to double from 400 to 800 the maximum
number of U.S. troops and increase from 400 to 600 the number
of private U.S. military contractors in Colombia.
“President Bush’s policy in Colombia is a miserable
failure and risking the lives of more US soldiers and wasting
millions more taxpayer dollars on private military contractors
will only make that policy worse. The Colombian people deserve
more from the Bush Administration than a policy that will escalate
violence and do nothing to promote a peaceful resolution to the
civil war that has ravaged that nation for more than forty years,”
Schakowsky said.
Schakowsky continued, “I continue to oppose the use of military
contractors who are not subject to the same kind of scrutiny and
accountability as U.S. soldiers. And when things go wrong for
these contractors, they and their families have been shamefully
forgotten by their American employers. The numbers proposed by
the Administration, while too high on their own, are misleading
because they do not include those foreign nationals who are recruited
by these companies as subcontractors. Expanding the use of contractors
in Colombia continues the Bush Administration’s practice
of hiding the truth from the American public and hampers the Congress’s
important oversight responsibility.”
“It seems that the Bush Administration’s solution to
dealing with the world is to deploy more U.S. soldiers and guns
for hire, while refusing to seek real, lasting solutions. It’s
time for a new direction in U.S. international policy and diplomacy,”
Schakowsky concluded.
As
of March 31, 2004, this document was also available online at
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/il09_schakowsky/pr3_22_2004colombia.html
