Published: March 14, 2008, Eugene Register Guard

A year ago, President George W. Bush announced his new Iraq strategy: a "surge" of more U.S. troops. The surge has "worked" in reselling the Iraq war to the media, but it's a failure for the people of Iraq and the United States.

The war in Iraq has created one of the world's largest and fastest growing humanitarian crises.

Estimates of Iraqi deaths range from 100,000 to 1 million. Nearly 8 million Iraqis - one-third of the population - need humanitarian aid. Some 2 million Iraqis are refugees in neighboring countries, and more than 2 million more are displaced within Iraq. UNICEF estimates that 4.5 million Iraqi children are undernourished.

Every survey shows that more Iraqis than ever want the Americans to leave. Our brave armed forces, including a large number from Oregon, continue to be seen as an occupation force by Iraqis. American casualties - now standing at almost 4,000 dead and 30,000 wounded - continue to grow.

According to Gov. Ted Kulongoski's office, 104 soldiers from Oregon, or with strong ties to Oregon, have died in the Iraq war. Yet we are told that in 2009, an additional 3,500 members of the Oregon National Guard are scheduled to be sent to Iraq.

How many will die or be wounded? How many will come home with emotional scars that will last a lifetime?

Our nation has spent nearly $500 billion on the Iraq war. Oregon's share of that cost through the 2007 fiscal year was more than $3.7 billion. If Congress passes the war-related spending requests for fiscal year 2008, Oregon taxpayers will have to pay an additional $1.25 billion, bringing Oregon's total costs to $5 billion.

And what about after that? All of these war expenditures are being extracted from future generations. The war is causing our national debt to skyrocket, and future medical costs associated with the tens of thousands of wounded returning war veterans will be astronomical.

Yet at a time when the costs of the Iraq war are mounting, states, counties and cities are struggling to provide basic services for their citizens. Federal programs intended for needy Oregonians - such as home energy assistance for low-income people, community development block grants, housing vouchers and child care assistance - have suffered big cuts under President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2009. In addition, Oregon elected officials repeatedly have been told by federal officials that federal funds for roads, schools, economic development, housing, corrections, tuition assistance, law enforcement, health care, mental health and other purposes cannot be expanded due to the exploding costs of the Iraq war.

We live in a state that must parcel out health care to its neediest citizens according to a lottery! We live in counties where budget cuts have forced longtime employees out of work, where parks have gone to pasture and where essential services are gradually being reclassified as optional. We live in cities where libraries have had to close for lack of funds and where roads have become a lattice of cracks and potholes.

The vast majority of Oregonians understand the need to stop this war, a war of aggression that is counter to the true long-term interests of the American people. How can we act on this belief?

First, we can join the swelling ranks of those who attend weekly peace vigils or who protest publicly at each anniversary of our March 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the face of George Bush's unrelenting adherence to his devastating "mission" in Iraq, we must be equally tenacious in our outrage against it. With every such public protest, that mission is further weakened, and Bush's militaristic approach to global crises is further discredited.

Second, we must continue to contact our congressional representatives, especially those who agree with us on the war, to let them know that we expect them to use their constitutionally provided power of the purse to cut off the funds for the Iraq war and direct the administration to bring our armed forces home from Iraq. This is the best way to "support our troops."

Third, it looks as though we will have an opportunity to pressure both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama this May when they bring their campaigns to Oregon. Wherever they appear, we should be there, loudly reminding them we will not settle for some gradual withdrawal plan with "wiggle room" for a few permanent U.S. bases. We want the troops home now!

It is our responsibility, especially in a time of crisis, to remember what it means to be a citizen in a democracy. It gets back to the age- old questions that we must keep directing at ourselves: If not I, then who? If not now, then when?

Michael Carrigan is part of the Take Back America Coalition, which is organizing a student rally at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the University of Oregon's Erb Memorial Union amphitheater, followed by a 1:30 p.m. parade to the old Federal Building for a 2:30 p.m. rally. Scott Burgwin is with Stand for Peace, which is hosting a memorial peace procession March 22, starting at the Row River Trailhead in Cottage Grove.