From the Senate floor on Thursday, Sen. Barbara Mikulski addressed the concerns of anti-war protesters who tried to occupy her offices this week, saying she supported ending the Iraq war but would not cut off funding for the troops.
“I want this war to end. Yet in ending this war, it?s my responsibility to ensure that our troops are brought home not only swiftly, but safely,” Mikulski said during a debate over a resolution to end the war.
“You can sit in every single day; you can follow me throughout my Senate career; you can tail me to my grave,” she said. “I will not vote to, in any way, to harm the men and women in the U.S. military, nor will [I] cut off the support to their families.”
The Maryland Democrat made her remarks during a debate on Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid?s resolution that called for an end to the war by 2008. Mikulski initially voted against the war in 2003.
But protesters, who said that any votes for additional funding was de facto support for the conflict, said Mikulski can end the war without cutting funding for the troops.
“She has to separate the funding for all the things the troops need ? body armor, health care ? from funding for continuing the war,” said Gordon Clark, spokesman for Peace Action Montgomery, one of the organizations that staged the sit-in at Mikulski?s offices throughout the state.
“Senator Mikulski should know it?s not her grave we?re referring to, it?s the graves of hundreds of soldiers and Iraqis who will die as the result of the furthering of this war,” Clark said. “We fully believe supporting the troops and ending the war is not incompatible.”
