1. The need for further action to repair the fragility of our own economy and rebuild the capacity of our economy to provide desperately needed job growth;
2. The need for a long-term commitment to strengthen our national security by dramatically reshaping our energy policy -- an effort that will require sustained and meaningful sacrifice by all elements of our society;
3. The need for long-term action to restore fiscal soundness by reining in the federal deficit; and
4. The need for long-term action to extend the fiscal soundness of Social Security and Medicare.
All of those efforts will require incredibly skilled leadership and a long-term willingness of the entire society to face hard facts.
Will we really be able to sustain sufficient long-term public willingness to attack those problems if our national determination is drained by ten more years of what is already the second longest war in American history?
This is stunning progress for Congressman Obey. He is moving ever so slowly, as the bodies continue to pile up, in the direction of the only real leader in Congress, Dennis Kucinich, who released this statement the same day:
Why I voted No on the National Defense Appropriations Bill
"Throughout my time in Congress I have been a champion for human rights. My opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by extension, the inclusion of an authorization for an additional $130 billion to fund these wars, is in part predicated on an understanding that war violates the human rights of the affected populations.
"Unemployment in both Iraq and Afghanistan is devastatingly high; access to humanitarian aid is limited; medical care and education are difficult to obtain or completely unavailable. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have clearly violated the human rights of the civilian populations in which they are being waged.
"As a staunch supporter of human rights I have consistently supported, voted in favor of, and advocated for passage of hate crimes legislation. I am fully committed to ensuring that the human rights of all individuals are protected. Therefore, I believe that passage of hate crimes legislation is essential to ensuring strong human rights protections for the victims of violent crimes that are perpetrated based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability of the victim.
"But there is a deep-seated irony in including a human rights provision in a funding bill that will inevitably ensure the continuation of human rights violations in parts of the world. I believe that, as a nation and a part of the global community, we cannot fully ensure the protection of our own human rights here in the United States without being equally diligent in ensuring the human rights of our global society. I cannot trade the human rights of some for the human rights of others."
David Swanson is the author of the new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press, from which part of this article is excerpted and modified. You can order the book and find out when the tour will be in your town at http://davidswanson.org/book
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