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Iraq War (1887) Iraq Exit Strategy (694) Iraq Exit Solutions (553) Kucinich-Dennis (371) Iraq War Funding (362) Pelosi-Nancy (341) Congress Failed War $$ Oversight (168) Funding (135) Reid-Harry (130) Interviews (114)
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I interviewed Dennis Kucinich about the details of a plan to refuse to fund the war. What would it look like? He replied with the quote in the title in answer to my comment that Democrats are not refusing to fund the war because they are afraid the Republicans will accuse them of refusing to fund the troops. Here's the transcript of the interview: RK= Rob Kall DK= Dennis Kucinich RK:I'm running a piece on what things would look like if congress refused to fund the war any further. DK: THis is the way the war can end. The leadership of the house goes to the president and tells the president, "we're not going to provide the funds for the war anymore." That he has to use the money he has in the defense budget to bring the troops and the equipment home. Thatwould cost about $5-10 billion and the money is there to do that now. RK: What kind of the support do you have for it? DK: Nationally, tremendous support for it, but in the congress, congress is temporizing on the issue of the war. There is no majority will being expressed here. The leadership has refused to challenge the president directly. Instead, what they're saying is that they don't have the votes to end the war, when in fact, you don't need the votes to end the war. There's an approach being taken that I really disagree with. RK: DO you have an support in the house, for this? DK: I think there are probably a couple of dozen members who would generally agree with what I'm saying. RK: Usually, in congress you work to put together a bill and pass it. Is there a mechanism, is there a way for you and those couple dozen to organize against further legislation? It's not like you go into committee. DK: What has to be done has to be done by the leaders. The leaders have to go to the president and tell him, "We're not going to give any more money." It's the leadership that schedules the bill. RK: THe fact is, if Nancy Pelosi or Harry decided not to let the motion come to the floor, either one of them, all by themselves, could stop this dead in its tracks, couldn't they? DK:The leadership of either the house of the senate, if either leadership determined, we're not going to let a bill come to the floor of the house or senate, the war would be stopped. They'd have to, essentially, force the presiden't hand on the war. RK: How can our readers help? DK: Urge and send messages to the democratic leadership of the house and the senate, that ending the war doesn't take legislation-- that it takes the will of the leadership to go to the president and say that they are not going to offer a bill-- that the president has to take the steps to bring the troops home. Now a parrallel process must ensue, and that is a peacekeeping and security force in the region would have to be assembled that would come in as our troops leave, because you don't want to leave a vacuum. RK: So, the will of the congress will be basically be stated by one of the leaders in either the house or the senate... DK: Actually, that's what's being done right now, by continuing to fund it. If they determine they're not going to fund it anymore, and tell the president that, then it's over. RK: The one question I want to be relly clear on, either Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid, individually, could stop this war by going to the president and saying, I'm not going to bring legislation to the floor that will fund the war any further. Either one of those individuals could do now, right? DK: Nancy works on concensus, with the other democratic leaders. But if the democratic leadership, and I don't work with Harry Reid, so I'm not sure how he works, but if the Democratic leadership went to the president and told him what I told you, we'd be on the way to ending the war. RK: IF this happened, if we got this to happen, what would you expect the president do? The Republicans? The media? How would they respond to this. It seems to me it is important to plan how to respond to their response. DK: The American people already made the decision to get out of Iraq by voting for a Democratic house and senate, so the way you respond is to say you are just bowing to the will of the people as expressed in the 2006 election. RK: There is a lot of talk that the Democrats are afraid of being attacked viciously, if they do this and stop the funding. DK: Fear is not a basis to run a government in a Democracy.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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