"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." -President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16, 1953
Talk about stepping into the abyss. George Bush and his Pentagon allies are considering increasing the number of troops in Iraq by 40,000. The idea is supported by some members of Congress, with John McCain being the first member to express his support publicly. Democratic leader Harry Reid chimed in over the weekend, saying that he would support an increase just as long as it was only for "a few months." This is despite the fact that over 60% of US residents want the troops out of there sooner rather than later. Reid's position also conveniently ignores the fact that once roops are in country, it becomes a lot harder for politicians and generals to pull them out. The current situation makes that all too clear. The White House position not only represents another blow to the idea that the people of the US run the country, it is a blatant kick in the voters' face. Yet, as long as Congress continues to give the White House and Pentagon whatever monies they want to fight the war, any other legislative actions mean less than zero. In a reversal of Bush's domestic initiatives like the No Child Left Behind act--an act which demanded individual states to follow certain mandates from the federal government without providing any funding, Congress provides unlimited funding of the war effort without asking for any guidelines, much less requiring any show of success. It's not like this is unusual. Certain funding requests rarely get a careful examination in Congress. Two of the most obvious ones both concern the Middle East. One is the constant funding that Tel Aviv gets no matter what they do or how they do it. The other is the budgeting that concerns those countries that contain big oil's profit source. Sometimes the money for the latter is to prop up a regime friendly to Washington's interests and sometimes it's used to destroy a regime with different ideas. In Iraq, the former is taken to its historical extreme. In other words, a regime that appears to be barely holding on to its power is being supported with unabashed US military power--to the tune of approximately 180 million dollars per day. This is only the financial cost, of course. Human costs are immeasurable, but here are some raw numbers regarding them: over the course of the war, US troops have died on the average of more than two per day; somewhere around a half million Iraqis have died (probably more rather than less), over 20,000 US troops have been wounded, along with unknown numbers of Iraqis.
Despite these statistics, the war continues. In fact, as noted above, it may very well escalate. The Democrats squeak a lot about their frustration with the war and say they will do things differently, yet very few have made any genuine indication that they will refuse to fund the war. Instead, a good number have signed on to the suggestions of the essentially irrelevant Iraq Study Group, whose report suggested a continuation of the war by renaming the mission of the troops on the ground and eventually withdrawing the combat troops--a move that a Washington Post report said would leave 75% of the troops in country. In addition, not a single Democratic Senator voted against the appointment of CIA man and war apologist Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense. Now, I don't know about you, but that sounds like more business as usual. The Democratic Congress' first test will come soon after they are seated. it will come in the shape of a $100 billion request for continuing the Iraq war. Other than a few noises from the left wing of the party--mostly from Congressman Kucinich of Ohio--there has been no indication that this request will not be granted. Indeed, a cursory reading of newspaper reports regarding the request leads me to believe that the only problem the Democrats have with the administration's war funding request is the manner in which it requests them. Instead of the emergency requests Messrs. Bush and Cheney tend to prefer, the Democrats want the war funding requests to be included in the annual budget. Recently, antiwar vet Mike Ferner, speaking for the groups Voices for Creative Nonviolence and Veterans For Peace, announced their call to antiwar protesters around the country to occupy the hometown offices of Representatives and Senators who have voted money for the war. These actions will take place in February, since Congress convenes in late January and the aforementioned funding request will be one of the first pieces of legislation on its agenda. This is a good idea. Indeed, I say let's go even further. Let's take up the call for the mass march on the Pentagon scheduled for March 17th and stage a sitdown protest there. Take over the lawn and refuse to leave. Sure, the upcoming antiwar marches on January 27th and March 17th are important, but, if all indications are correct, manifestations such as these have so far only succeeded in getting our elected officials to say they oppose the war, but not to do anything concrete about it. It's up to us to make them stick to their words. Sitting in their offices until they answer our questions or call the police is a logical next step. So is the idea of a massive sit-in on the Pentagon lawn or the Washington Mall. It's called heightening the contradictions. The United States could use some of that. Think about it. If these ideas don't work for you and your people, perhaps another one will., or a combination of other ones. If we recall the protests in Seattle in 1999 against the WTO, we will remember how effective they were in raising the level of awareness and opposition to the aims of global capitalism. We will also remember how effectively the protests were organized. Everything was done on a local level. Sure, the actual protests took place in Seattle (and several other places in the following years), but if we are to believe the current polls, there are enough US residents opposed to the war that we can sit in on the Pentagon or Mall lawn AND take local actions. It's in our interest to stop this war now. We have to make it in Congress' interest , too.
http://stillhomeron.blogspot.com/
Ron Jacobs is a writer, library worker and anti-imperialist. He is the author of The Way the Wind Blew:A History of the Weather Underground (Verso 1997) His first novel, Short Order Frame Up, is now available at Amazon, and many other stores.
opposed to the war, but there aren't enough Americans opposed to the war who don't have jobs and families to support and can afford to get beaten and teargassed and tasered and spend a few days, weeks, months, years, or even, if they get labelled terrorists, the rest of their lives in prison.
Bush wouldn't particularly care if a few million protestors occupied Washington, D.C. He ignored the largest protests the world had ever seen against invading Iraq and went right ahead and did it anyway. And the offices of local representatives will be happy to let local law enforcement show off all that homeland security crowd control training and gear they've been given.
A much smarter and more effective way of opposing the war would be if everyone opposed to it sent an email to each of their representatives saying:
Dear So-and-So:
I am one of your constituents and I have voted for you and donated time and money to your campaigns.
I am opposed to the continuing illegal occupation of Iraq.
Because I have to support my family, I have to pay for any defense budget you vote for with my taxes. But due to the globalization policies you voted for, my job is not as secure as it used to be and my wages and benefits have decreased.
Therefore I am withholding any and all future donations until and unless you demonstrate that you represent me by voting against the defense budget.
If you decide to vote for the defense budget anyway, please don't blame Bush when you find that there is no money left over to fund any plans you might have had to increase the minimum wage or to make health care and education more affordable.
You are an adult and an elected representative and it is high time that you began to take responsibility for your actions.
Sincerely,
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 2:38:32 AM
Hi,
Thanks for the thoughts. I must disagree, however. Your call to write a reasoned letter to one's congressional representative assumes that these men and women will respond to such tactics. My belief is that they need to see more than just a million letters opposing the war. They need to see a million people in the streets demanding that they oppose the war and end the funding, as well. And those voices must get louder and louder until they end the funding. Congress has been given the chance to do something to end the war and they haven't. It's time the citizens motivate themselves to do something.
by
Ron Jacobs (59 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 16 comments)
on Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 7:43:28 AM
When politicians see millions of people in the streets, they think, "Those aren't working people, or they'd be at work, not out in the streets demonstrating. Therefore while some of them may be my constituents, they're not the ones who donate money to my campaigns, so I can safely ignore them."
Writing a letter that says, clearly, "If you are going to vote to give my money to Bush and his agenda, I'm not going to give you any more money," is something that politicians WILL respond to. Some people think it may be the only thing that they'd respond to.
--Mark
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 5:44:38 PM
I still think having a war would be fine if nobody came.
Why do we keep praising those who are willing to go anywhere in the world to kill other human beings? We need to help those folks find other options for their lives, and help them recognize the insanity of what they're doing.
Wearing a uniform does not make one less of a murderer. Does it?
Flush "patriotism" down the toilet and the world will be a much more decent place.
by
Daniel Geery (26 articles, 58 quicklinks, 121 diaries, 690 comments)
on Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 7:41:04 AM
4 comments
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