President Bush just received another blank check from Congress to continue the war in Iraq. It is now almost a certainty that he will have all the funding necessary to continue the war for the duration of his presidency.
And while we are bogged down in Iraq with 165,000 troops on the ground, terror cells throughout the world still plot to attack us. Our overwhelming presence of ground forces in Iraq has done nothing to prevent this. All the recent attempts by terrorists on our homeland did not come out of Iraq. So we just wasted another $70 billion on a war that has already been won militarily and is not making us safer here at home.
All the tough talk from Congressional Democrats about accountability and ending the war just went right out the window. It is a devastating blow to folks like myself who have been out there fighting for exactly what we were promised when we elected Democrats as the majority party, an end to the war.
Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, to their credit, opposed the war funding. I believe in their "heart of hearts" they seriously want an end to the war. My opinion on this matter comes from numerous first hand encounters with them regarding the war.
In a recent statement, Speaker Pelosi stated:
"I cannot support spending billions more in Iraq with no strings attached, particularly in the same week that the President said we cannot afford to fund basic priorities here at home, such as the education of our children, and increased investment in medical research and hiring more police officers on the street."Speaker Pelosi is correct. We can not adequately address the real issues that matter most to Americans such as jobs, health care, global warming, the economy, and poverty when all of our political energy in Washington is being wasted on Iraq, along with billions of tax payer dollars.
However, the inability to unite the Democratic party is a serious detriment to the party's efforts to move forward on these critical issues.
As I stated when I walked away from the status quo anti-war lobbying groups, the reason why the Republicans keep prevailing on war funding legislation is because "they would follow George W. Bush to the gates of hell." They are strong & united while the Democrats are divided into multiple factions with different positions that they can not all agree upon.
Rahm Emanuel commented on the failure of Congress to halt a blank check for war funding -- "I'm not going to let a lot of hard work go unnoticed, but I'm not going to hand out party hats either."
Fair enough, but Rahm Emanuel, like he always does, voted for the war funding, and people are dying. The Democrats have made strong and substantial progress on domestic issues, but the lives of our troops and the Iraqi people supersede any unnoticed hard work from the Congress.
Most shocking is that all the Democrats running for President didn't even vote. Call me crazy, but if I were running for president, and wanted the support of the Democratic base, I would have been "front and center" voting against the blank check.
Half of the Democrats in the Senate voted for the funding along with similar numbers in the House of Representatives.
I regularly attend rallies, meetings, and demonstrations that oppose the war in Iraq. What I am finding out is that the people who voted for Democrats in 2006 are completely walking away from the party in 2008. They feel betrayed by those who they elected to end the war but failed to deliver.
This is a very serious and imminent problem facing the Democrats in 2008.
The people tell me "I will NOT be fooled again and I will NOT vote for the lesser of two evils."
As a strong Democrat, and someone who is strongly opposed to the Iraq war, I recognize and share their frustrations. We should not have to plead with our members of Congress and shame them into doing the right thing. But if we walk away from our party now we will only ensure Republican victory in 2008. The results of that will perpetuate the war in Iraq and that is not an acceptable alternative. We will continue to keep losing lives -- and that is what we are ultimately trying to stop.
What we need to do is identify the members of our party who are voting with Bush on the war and find a way to remove them in primary elections. It may not happen in 2008 due to lack of time to prepare strong primary campaigns, but in 2010, despite whoever controls the White House, these members of Congress who we trusted should be held accountable. They no longer deserve a place in our party when they continue to keep voting with Bush.
Now here is the question:
Why should we walk away from our party because of bad apples? Together we can bring in a fresh bunch (of Democrats) that will end the war and do right by the American people. We can take our party back. We are the people of this country and we have the power to do it.
My message to the Democratic party is simple: SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT. If you will not serve the people we will find others who will.
John Bruhns
Iraq Veteran
PS. I wrote this as a "strong Democrat" who recognizes the need for a strong reform movement in the Democratic party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
On Iraq: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
- JB
If the votes are shared in a triangular way, with disappointed-by-democrats voters choosing an independant or leftier candidate, then the conservatives might win again.
Sometimes when voting it's more useful to vote for a less perfect candidate than to allow a worst one to win.
392 days to go before your new president takes charge. Please don't give America, the world, and the future generations another 4 years of terrible human, ecological, and economical mismanagement !
The current conservatives act in unity, because they are experienced politicians, with all the negative connotations implied.
The tragedy of 9/11 happened. Americans needed a healer. Unfortunately opportunists were (and still are) in charge.
Now American citizens are hurt. They doubt their abilities, they're frightened, they don't believe in themselves as the people from the nation of liberty, democracy, open-minded education, knowledge, freedom to enterprize.
American citizens have got the feeling that they are doomed. They don't dare to ask for a drastic change.
They haven't healed, and they're low spirited. Corpses, maimed bodies, keep coming back from Iraq, the dollar is low, economy is not in good shape. They accept these failures as a fatality, because their current leaders lie, tell them not to react, and try to make them avoid to face and fight the problems. American citizens are wrongly treated like irresponsible stupid children.
However Americans are neither irresponsible, nor stupid. They are wonderful great people who have endless possibilities once they set themselves together behind a great president.
Americans have always made great soldiers. They can also be great citizens. They only need a leader to show them the light, to restore their self esteem and their optimism, to set high goals for his citizens, spiritual high goals rather than tell them to go to the mall.
There's no such thing as fatality in your country. There are many currents running, like the one you yourself are making run and work, John, and one day all these currents will coalesce and give birth to a restored united America with the values and strengths for which we foreigners have always loved, admired, and envied you.
Little streams add up to the point of becoming a huge river. Thanks, John, for having the courage and the faith to add your personal part to the river. I have much faith in the future thanks to guys like you.
We have common dreams for the betterment of all Americans, and my dearest hope (aside from my Canadian friends's forgiveness and love), is that we realize we need to care for our most vulnerable first: our children, elderly, and veterans. As we tend to them, we must also tend to the most vulnerable throughout the world, and of course, to the one thing supporting all of humanity - Mother Earth.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, and a New Year filled with Peace.
~Kristine
I believe that a lot of sincere progressives such as you have been brainwashed into believing that we MUST have a Democratic party, for all the reasons you mention in your blog.
There IS another line of thought - that the Democratic party has outlived it's usefulness, and needs to be entirely scrapped and replaced by something new and different.
The problem with the kind of incremental change you advocate is that it leaves the essential power structures intact - with their corporatist tendencies.
As long as we have that, the dems are just repub-lites...whether you like it or not.
A new, populist based party - something on the order of what not-so-crazy Ralph Nader has been advocating - would be what we needed in order to make real progress at home and abroad, passing comprehensive legislation in the areas of health care, climate management, education, energy management, etc.
And of course, a truly populist party would get us out of unfortunate militaristic excesses like Iraq, simply by withholding money as Dennis Kucinich has long advocated.
Trying to separate the sheep from the goats in the party is difficult, if not impossible. The entrenched structure won't permit it, and most of the congress has dirty hands already.
That's why there is precious little to show for the '06 elections, even though the dems are in control of BOTH houses.
What we need is not some short term tactics, but a long term strategic vision that will set the course of the 21st century. Said another way, we need a new New Deal...a true shuffling of the deck...a replacement of old paradigm thinking with something new and better.
I haven't time right now to read and comment, because I have family visiting and I've got to cook a huge Christmas meal.
I just want to wish you a very happy Christmas, John.
No one deserves to have joy and happiness as much as you do.
Thank you, John. Happy Christmas to you and to your family, and to all the people you love, who love you, and who support you.
I think I am offeded more by Pelosi and Reid than I am by Bush and Co.
Bush is what he is, but these spineless, calculating wimps are an offense to the constitution they profess to support and defend.
It may come to change what is allowed on blogs
such as this one. Another attempt to silence
those who try to defend the Constitution.
With regards to the war in Iraq the salient issue is not whether the presidential candidate wants to continue the war or end it soon but is accountability for the thousands of dead and tens of thousands of maimed Americans from the war in Iraq. How do you justify these human expenditures Mr/Mrs candidate? Most Republican candidates aver that the casualties were/are a regrettable consequence of “making our country safer”. I do not buy this mantra, but at least they do have one against which I can fight.
There is a strong segment of the “anti-war movement” to which I do not belong, which holds that only the members of the Bush administration, past and present, plus those Senators who voted for the Iraq resolution in 2001 are accountable for our dead and wounded soldiers. Now, how about the “Paymasters”? Are they not just as accountable for what has been called the “greatest diplomatic and military disaster in the history of the United States” at least after the summer of 2002 when it became crystal clear that the country had been tricked into war with Iraq?
You cannot be “anti-war” and allow the “Paymasters” to go scot-free. Sure, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Biden all were “Paymasters” but so was Obama. Now, if you are really serious about “change” you cannot allow any Democratic “Paymaster” become president or vice-president of the United States. How would he/she differ in this respect from the Republican wannabe?
The Republican nominee will keep attacking Senator Obama if he becomes the Democratic nominee with: “Sir, stop bitching about the war in Iraq; you were one of its Paymasters. What will you say to the families and friends of the tens of thousands of dead and wounded soldiers in your acceptance speech if you become our next president”? Well, Obama-baby, what would you say to them? Sorry that you voted funds for Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld?
Is there a list of acceptable dems and ones' to get rid of somewhere?