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Betrayed!
How the Democratic Congress betrayed
American voters, the troops in Iraq and extended the occupation
for at least another 18 months. Continue
By Cindy Sheehan
Gold Star Families for Peace
03/24/07 "ICH"
-- -- THE DEMOCRATS ARE FUNDING IRAQ ESCALATION: The
Democratic leadership has proposed $100 billion of supplemental
funding for an increased troop presence in Iraq. The leadership
opted for the
"slow bleed" policy over a month ago. This extends the
occupation for at least another 18 months, and allows permanent
placement of troops thereafter for “training” or “combating
terrorism”. It also will permit the Bush Administration to
initiate a war with Iran without Congressional oversight. The
surge of 20,000 troops recently increased to 30,000 and will
likely increase to 100,000 by year-end. Will the hapless
Democrats then claim, “If only I knew then what I know now”
as they have for the past year?
The “slow
bleed” policy has some toothless requirements for presidential
assertions of progress like those we’ve heard for the past four
years from the Administration; these reporting requirements
allow “slow bleed” proponents to make the preposterous claim
they are “ending the war” by funding it. Amendments that would
require withdrawal of US forces this year, the policy
overwhelming favored by Americans, and the troops themselves,
are not even being allowed for a vote by the leadership!
The shameless short-term purpose of the Democratic policy is
to embarrass Republicans with a Senate filibuster of the
supplemental, or a presidential veto, and the longer-term aim is
to help Democrats in the 2008 election by saddling the
Republicans with intervention in an untenable civil war.
In 2002 the
Democrats authorized Bush to invade Iraq (or any other country
he deemed to support terrorism, for example Iran) in hope he
would become involved in an unpopular war which would produce a
Democratic White House. The Democrats 2007 policy is equally
political, and may have the paradoxical effect of producing
Republican victories in 2008. The prolongation of the occupation
is now opposed by two-thirds of all Americans; we want our
troops safely home by this Christmas, not political chicanery.
As a consequence Americans now think even more poorly of
Congress than ever; the failure to withdraw from Iraq dropped
Democratic support of Congress from 44% to 33% according to
the latest Gallup poll. The Democrats failure to stem what
has become
a Democrats war will be a factor in
the 2008 elections.
A year ago
72% of the troops in Iraq said all troops should come home in
2006 but politicians did not heed their message. How much better
we would be if our support included listening to them. Not
another drop of blood should be spilled to protect cowardice by
both political parties.
AMERICANS
WANT TROOP WITHDRAWAL: The Democratic leadership has
disregarded national polls showing that 60% of all Americans and
80% of Democratic voters oppose the increase troop levels in
Iraq. Grassroots progressive organizations overwhelmingly oppose
the occupation of Iraq and the recent escalation. One group
closely allied to the Democratic leadership, MoveOn, has used
antiwar sentiment to triple both its membership and fundraising,
but has been AWOL from antiwar activity; its members are
prohibited from demonstrations, and only vigils for the war dead
are posted as events on their website. A month ago I wrote that
MoveOn began efforts to support
"slow bleed" while antiwar forces actively opposed it.
Recently
MoveOn fabricated a biased push-poll in which “85%” of
respondents supported “slow bleed”; however, the 96% of the
MoveOn members who favor withdrawal, and who were not offered a
vote on that option,
refused to participate in a sham. Congressional sources
report that the spurious MoveOn poll, together with intensive
bullying and bribing, was used to erode the principled
opposition of congressional progressives.
A reliable poll
conducted by True Majority, another group with progressive
membership, found that only 24% favored the “slow bleed” policy
while 76% favored immediate or near-term withdrawal.
A Zogby poll sponsored by CODEPINK found that 90% of
progressives/liberals favored near-term withdrawal. 96% of
progressives question the push-poll used by MoveOn
that gave such contrary results. Antiwar groups that fought
for withdrawal (United for Peace and Justice, Progressive
Democrats of America, US Labor Against the War, After Downing
Street, Democrats.com, Peace Action, Code Pink, Democracy
Rising, True Majority, Gold Star Families for Peace, Military
Families Speak Out, Backbone Campaign, Iraq Veterans Against the
War, Voters for Peace, Veterans for Peace, the Green Party) are
irate at the
MoveOn duplicity.
MoveOn is now
raising funds from antiwar supporters to attack Senate
opposition to the supplemental., but the activist community is
now aware that MoveOn is not the cathartic needed to address
Democratic Party constipation. There is at least one Democratic
senator, Russ Feingold, who could oppose
the funding farce. MoveOn is an autocratic organization run
by a small group of elitist wannabe power-brokers; it cannot be
reformed, but you can let their politburo know your feelings
eli@moveon.org,
Namrita.Chaudhary@gmail.com ,
tom@moveon.org, and you can unsubscribe! You also can
refuse to lend them your name (their petitions are mainly for
fund-raising), your efforts, and your money, and instead join
with one of the many active progressive and antiwar
organizations (check out
United for Peace and Justice- UFPJ for a detailed listing of
local and national groups, which incidentally does not include
MoveOn). None of the MoveOn leadership has served their country
in the armed forces; like Dick Cheney and 95% of Congress they
had more important things to do, which did not and do not
include supporting the troops that are in harms way.
The “slow
bleed” strategy favored by the Democratic leadership and MoveOn
is an immoral political calculation that will cause more
heartache and disaster in Iraq. That leadership should
understand that being perceived as “weak on principle” is much
worse politically than being “weak on defense”. Democratic
politicians need to vote their conscience on the supplemental.
On November 7th we voted for an antiwar, anti-Bush
policy; make that vote count for peace.
Please tell the Democratic
leadership: Bring Our Troops Home Now!
Please visit
the
Gold Star
Families for Peace Website
Click here
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