The
War And The Democrats:
What Are They Doing?
By
Thomas Riggins
11 December,
2007
Countercurrents.org
There
are the people's interests and there are the interests of the military
industrial complex [MIC] and those who benefit from US imperialism or
think they do. With respect to the war in Iraq, the majority of the
American people are on record as wanting to end it and they do not support
the military industrial complex and its imperial designs. The Republican
party (with the exception of Ron Paul) is firmly in the hands of the
MIC and can only be described as made up of pro war jingoists and sub
rosa racists. The American people gave the Congress to the Democrats
to end the the war. So, are the Democratic leaders working for the American
people, or for the MIC?
Saturday's
New York Times [12-8-07] may provide the answer. The answer may be in
Carl Hulse's front page news article "Budget Makers Plan Tradeoff
For War Funds." It seems that a $ 500 billion budget is in the
works which will give Bush "unfettered money for the Iraq war in
exchange for new spending on popular domestic programs." The subtext
here is obvious. The Dems will do the bidding of the MIC in return for
goodies to take back to the voters to try and get reelected. They will
try and make the American people moral accomplices in murder. Daycare
funding will be paid for with the blood of Iraqi children.
The Democratic
leadership knows that the base of the party is anti-war and that the
majority of the Democrats in Congress are also. How can the leaders
serve the MIC in a situation such as this? Their plan is to give Bush
so much for his war that "the final war spending total would produce
enough Republican support to offset defections by House Democrats."
That's right. Pelosi will run the House of Representatives not with
the Democratic majority that was sent there in 2006, but by a combination
of right Democrats and Republicans so that the MIC can keep its war
going full steam ahead. This cynicism could cost them the election in
2008.
This plan
is already a done deal in the Senate, but it has to get through the
House. "After the measure returns to the House for a final vote,"
the Times reports, "Democrats opposed to the war are likely to
vote against it but may not be able to stop it." What can be more
clear than this. Democrats at the top of the party, the leadership,
crafted this dirty deal and, no matter what they say, they are NOT opposed
to the war and the MIC and the spread of US imperialism. Everyone of
the candidates running for president should be asked to a take a position
on this measure so we can separate the sheep from the goats. It is not
likely that any of them will be quizzed on this issue by any representatives
of the MIC allied mass media in this country.
The fact
of the matter is that giving Bush all the money he wants AND a free
hand "without a deadline or goal for withdrawal would represent
a major concession by Democrats. They had earlier said [evidently just
for show- tr] they would not send Mr. Bush any more war money this year
unless he accepted a change in Iraq policy."
Hey, the
Democrats have all the cards. The people are with them and the president
is an incompetent lame duck with no real credibility. Why do they have
to make this concession? The answer is they don't. They are making it
because the top party leadership is just as financially dependent and
beholden to the MIC as are the Republicans. The Democratic base has
to raise Hell with their representatives to replace this compromising
traitorous leadership with real representatives of the people's will.
It can be done but it will take a lot of effort and hard work, but the
future of the country is at issue.
Not only
are the Dem leaders selling out on the war for domestic goodies to try
and bribe the base with, but they are only getting half of the money
they originally planned to spend on domestic issues. This is because
they cut funding to attract Republicans to the measure for which they
knew they could never get many of their own members to vote.
Bush doesn't
even know what a great deal he is being offered. He and the Republican
leadership are demanding all the war money AND no conditions plus no
goodies for the Democrats to take back home! "The White House issued
veto threats against the spending measures and rejected a major health
[sorry kids], education and labor bill."
He has got
to be realistic. He can't expect the Dems to sell out their base for
free. He has got to toss them some scraps. Its the holidays. Democrats
want to go home They "are hopeful that he would accept the developing
plan," the Times says. "They would like to wind up the spending
fight and break for the holidays...," no doubt we will see pictures
of a few of them over in Iraq eating turkey with the troops (the last
meal for some).
Thomas
Riggins is the book review editor for Political Affairs and
can be reached at [email protected] ot at
Thomas Riggins Blog
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