Playing
Politics With The Iraq War Brings Out The Worst In The Duopoly
By Kevin Zeese
10 May, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The
2008 elections for Congress and the presidency seem to be the dominant
domestic factor in determining the outcome of the Iraq War. The Democrats
are using the war to position themselves to win the presidency and expand
their majority. The Republicans are trying to keep their base happy
until it is too late for incumbents to be challenged. And, the president
is using his veto power to show he is still the “decider”
not Congress.
One thing both parties agree
on – blame the Iraqis rather than take responsibility for a catastrophic
quagmire. The leadership of both parties are complicit in supporting
the war. Bush certainly led us into war based on lies, but the Democrats
knew they were lies as Sen. Dick Durbin admitted last week on the Senate
floor, but voted in favor of the use of force resolution. See http://democracyrising.us/content/view/899/151/.
Bush has mismanaged the war but the Democrats have voted for all of
the more than $400 billion in funding he has asked for.
The other thing the duopoly
agrees on – push the Iraqis to pass an oil law that divides Iraq’s
oil wealth between western oil companies and Iraq, while falsely saying
it is to divide the oil wealth among Iraqis. The pressure for passage
of the oil law shows the real purpose of the invasion of Iraq all along
was to ensure that western oil companies get more than their fair share
of the trillion dollars in profit that will come from Iraq’s immense
oil fields. See http://democracyrising.us/content/view/900/164/.
The Democrats are walking
a tightrope. They are trying to convince their anti-war base, which
dominates the party, that they want to end the war. But, the anti-war
movement is actually reading the bills and not buying their rhetoric
and media summary. The Democratic bill does not end the war. The bill
offered a non-binding, exit dates that only covered “combat”
troops (less than half the troops in Iraq) and provided loopholes to
keep combat troops in Iraq that essentially describe what the troops
are currently doing, e.g., protect U.S. interests (especially long-term
bases, the embassy, and perhaps also the oil fields that U.S. companies
will control), fight terrorists and al-Qaeda, and train Iraqi soldiers.
This is not an exit from Iraq it is an extension of the war. Further,
the failure to put up any requirement that Bush seek approval from Congress
before military action against Iran means the Democrats approach is
more likely to lead to a larger war than to the end of the Iraq war.
One thing the Democrats phony
end the war efforts have done is shown who the real peace movement is.
Unfortunately the establishment media doesn’t get it or does not
want to get it. They label groups that are essentially Democratic Party
PACS, MoveOn.org, VoteVets and unions, as the anti-war movement. These
groups have provided cover to the Democrats to extend the war in by
supporting the Democrats approach (is it a surprise that Democratic
leaning PACS support the Democrats?). The real peace movement, made
up of thousands of local and national groups, has consistently opposed
the Democratic strategy. See, e.g. http://democracyrising.us/content/view/904/164/.
The Democrats will get a
sense of their failure to fool the anti-war movement when demonstrations
against them continue this summer. Already more than 200 demonstrators
have been arrested occupying the offices of Democratic legislators.
This summer a coalition of peace organizations have announced a SWARM
on Congress beginning on May 14 and extending through July 31 that will
escalate opposition to the Democrats failure to end the war. See http://democracyrising.us/content/view/902/151/.
In 2008 Democrats should not expect the peace movement to sit quietly
if they run a presidential candidate who does not oppose the war and
has not taken action to end the war. A Democrat who is weak on ending
the war should expect anti-war protesters to be campaigning at their
public events.
Why is President Bush vetoing
these weak Democratic bills, because he is nearing the end of his presidency,
has historically low approval ratings and is drifting toward irrelevancy
– becoming a very lame, lame duck president. By vetoing the Democratic
bills he shows he is relevant and that he has more power than the Democrats
because they cannot override his vetoes.
The Democratic leadership
has helped to empower Bush by rapidly backing down. After his first
veto the Democrats took out the advisory deadlines to leave Iraq and
now are joining him in blaming the Iraqis and pressuring for passage
of an oil law. The House Democrats are suggesting they give Bush all
the money he requests but divide the $95 billion appropriation in two
parts with the first $43 billion given immediately and the remaining
only after Bush shows that the Iraqis are making progress. But, Bush
has threatened to veto this as well. He knows he has the Democrats back
pedaling, and that if he threatens veto they will back pedal more, disappoint
their anti-war base further and if they back pedal fast enough who knows
how badly they will trip and fall.
The Republicans are staying
with the president. They see that the Republican voting base still supports
the war and does not want to leave until the U.S. “wins.”
But time is running out for Bush keeping their support. The early primary
schedules, developed as a result of the jockeying for the presidential
race, will help incumbents by making it hard for challengers to run
effective campaigns. By fall it will be evident to incumbents whether
they are being challenged and free them up to start focusing on the
general election where independent and Democratic voters become more
important – voters who oppose the war.
The Republicans know that
the repeated votes on Iraq pushed on them by the Democratic leadership
are putting them in a deep Iraq War hole. They need to start climbing
out. Yesterday, a group of 11 moderate Republicans met with Bush to
warn him that the Iraq War threatens the Republican Party. The moderate
Republicans shared with Bush polling data that showed serious problems
for Republicans because of Iraq. They warned him that they will stick
with him for now, but don’t count on it for long.
Even conservative, pro-Bush
Republicans, have sent warning signals. Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), Republican
Whip, told reporters “I do think this fall we have to see some
significant changes on the ground, in Baghdad and other surrounding
areas.” He warned that without some progress future spending on
Iraq is in jeopardy. And Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) the House Minority
Whip said “By the time we get to September or October, members
are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn't,
what's Plan B.”
President Bush can help the
Republican legislators out of their Iraq hole by starting to bring troops
home in 2008. The surge will bring troop levels up to 170,000 so even
a withdrawal of 50,000 troops will leave a lot of troops in Iraq but
might be enough to fool the voters into thinking that the war is winding
down but in reality it would be a ploy to extend the war and neutralize
it as an issue in the 2008 election.
The Democrats will only be
able to keep the Republican legislators in their Iraq hole by getting
serious about ending the war. That means a safe and orderly withdrawal
of troops, civilian security forces and U.S. corporate interests along
with funds to allow the Iraqis to rebuild their country. This would
be the type of actions that would fulfill the voters’ mandate
of 2006 and get the peace movement to support Democratic candidates
in 2008.
Both parties are playing
to their base and trying to fool the voters – the public wants
the war to end, but the leadership of neither party is ready to end
it. The duopoly remains complicit in one of the most catastrophic foreign
policy decisions in U.S. history.
Kevin Zeese
is Director of DemocracyRising.US and Chair of VotersForPeace.US
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.
Click
here to comment
on this article