Democrats
Beginning To Pay
A Political Price For Failing
To End The War
By Kevin Zeese
10 March, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Tina Richards son, Cloy, is a
corporal in the U.S. Marines. He is facing his third tour of duty in
Iraq. He and his mother oppose the war. Ms. Richards is living in Maryland
lobbying Congress to end the war. She has joined Maryland voters who
are occupying the office of Maryland’s senior senator, Barbara
Mikulski.
Tina saw Sen. Mikulski leaving
a hearing recently going to the women’s room. She followed her
and mentioned that protesters were occupying her office to protest the
war. Mikulski said she did not understand why they were protesting her
saying “I voted against the war.” Tina answered “That
is no longer enough.”
She’s right. Now, as
we approach the fourth anniversary of the war it is time for the Congress
to end it. Senator Barbara Mikulski, like most Democrats, has been a
critic of President Bush, describing him as a reckless and irresponsible
commander in chief. But she has voted to give this reckless commander
in chief more than $420 Billion, as have almost all Democrats.
That is the problem –
Democrats like Mikulski say they are opposed to the war but keep appropriating
more money for the war. They need to realize that if they pay for it,
it’s theirs.
Maryland voters have occupied
the office of Senator Mikulski twice so far in what will be a series
of efforts to convince Mikulski to lead efforts to end the Iraq War.
At the second occupation Sen. Mikulski had four of her constituents
arrested after they occupied her offices for three hours placing photographs
of all the Maryland soldiers who had died around her office, and reading
the names of soldiers and Iraqis killed in the war. (Links to videos
of the two occupations are at the bottom of this article.)
Her constituents are holding
Sen. Mikulski accountable for her actions. When she votes to fund the
war she is putting U.S. troops in harms way and adding to the quagmire
of the Iraq War. If Mikluski votes for this next supplemental she will
be sending under-trained troops with inadequate equipment and an unclear
purpose into an unwinnable quagmire. Real support for the troops requires
more than criticizing Bush, it requires acting to remove the troops
from harms way.
It would take only 41 votes
to stop the war in the U.S. Senate. A filibuster of Iraq funding would
not even require all of the 51 Democrats in the Senate to support it
in order to succeed. If the Senate filibustered the president’s
$99 billion request it could then pass an alternative that would really
support the troops by bringing them home safely, reduce the violence
in Iraq by providing funds to allow Iraqis to re-build their own country
and underwrite a regional peace keeping force. If this exit were combined
with a diplomatic surge in the region the U.S. could bring greater stability
to the Middle East. Those steps would restore U.S. leadership and prevent
further U.S. and Iraqi casualties. This approach would also save tax
payers tens of billions of dollars in 2007 alone.
The Iraq war has resulted
in more than 50,000 U.S. casualties and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi
deaths, but it has also cost more than $420 billion, $8.8 billion of
which has been paid for by Mikulski’s constituents – Maryland’s
taxpayers. This comes at a time when our citizens cannot afford health
care, school systems are failing and there is an affordable housing
crisis. What could that $8.8 billion have bought for Maryland? Four
million children could have received a full year of health insurance,
more than 122,000 public school teachers could have been hired, 342,000
students could have received four year scholarships to public universities
or 63,000 public housing units could have been built. (Link below to
find out what the Iraq War has cost your community.)
Sadly, Senator Mikulski’s
voting record forces us to ask whether her inconsistent position –
voting to fund the war while saying she opposes it – are because
of campaign contributions. To date, she’s received $369,000 in
contributions from the defense industry and her third and fourth largest
campaign donors are Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Further, she
received more than $362,000 from the hard right Israeli lobby that supported
the Iraq War and currently supports military action against Iran.
Her funding reflects the
funding of the Democratic Party. The Defense industry has donated $110.6
million in campaign contributions since 1990, $43.7 million to Democrats.
And, the pro-Israel lobby has donated $55.2 million, $37.4 to Democrats.
Is the conflict between the
interests of their donors and the views of their voters who oppose the
war making it difficult for Democrats like Sen. Mikulski to take action
to end the war?
In a sign of how widespread
support is for ending the war – polls show a majority of Americans
want troops out within the year as do the vast majority of soldiers.
Jean Athey one of those arrested in Sen. Mikulski’s office reported
a policeman stopped by to talk while they were incarcerated. He said,
“Anyone who thinks that the war is wrong and people are being
killed needlessly, has a moral imperative to do everything in their
power to stop it.” And, on one of the van trips the prisoners
saw some police standing outside, one of them, an African-American policeman,
came over and gave them a power salute. At first, Jean was not sure
of his intent. Then, he said to them, “I really respect what you
guys are doing.”
When I was in law school,
then Congresswoman Mikulski co-sponsored a bill I was working on regarding
the advertising and labeling of contraceptives. I want the old Barbara
Mikulski back – one who was more consistent and reflected her
values. That Barbara Mikulski would say to President Bush – “Not
one more dime, not one more death for your reckless war. It is time
to support the troops by bringing them home.”
Kevin Zeese is Director of
Democracy Rising (www.DemocracyRising.US)
and a founder of VotersForPeace.US.
For more information:
Videos of the occupation
of Senator Mikulski’s office are at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=165649651173410173&hl=en (this is the second
occupation that results in the arrests of four of her constituents,
it is 9 minutes long).
http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=4819300510808318190&hl=en (this is the first
occupation, it is 12 minutes long).
The Mikulski action is part
of a nationwide campaign to end the occupation. Visit the Occupation
Project at http://vcnv.org/project/the-occupation-project
to see similar actions occurring around the United States and to join
this effort.
To get information about
what the Iraq War is costing us at the national, state and local levels
visit: www.CostOfWar.com
a project of the National Priorities Project.
Tina Richards website is
http://grassrootsamerica4us.org/.