A
Different Kind Of Peace Candidate For President
By Kevin Zeese
30 June, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Dal
LaMagna (rhymes with Lasagna) is running for president by working to
end the Iraq War. The independently wealthy businessman just returned
from a trip to Amman, Jordan and Baghdad, Iraq where he met with members
of the Iraq Parliament, Iraqi tribal leaders, representatives of the
resistance and U.S authorities, including Generals Petraeus, Lamb and
Newton. He told me that the road to the White House is through Iraq.
Dal has been working to end
the war for several years. He was the executive producer of three feature
length Iraq War movies: The Ground Truth, The War Tapes, and Iraq For
Sale. I met Dal when he moved to Washington, DC to work with Congress
to end the war. He was hopeful that after the Democrats 2006 victory
the party leadership would move to end the war.
Dal developed a niche for
himself in Washington, DC by playing the role of bringing the voices
of Iraq to the United States. He developed a power point presentation
of his previous trips to the region, created a satellite video conference
between Iraqi Parliamentarians and a bi-partisan groups of Members of
Congress. But, Dal learned the frustration of getting things done in
official Washington. And the media, rather than covering the momentous
event of legislators from both countries talking – ignored the
whole thing.
Dal is not one to give up.
He wants the “killing and maiming” in Iraq to end. And,
after meeting with many key people in Iraq he has come to the conclusion
that a complete U.S. withdrawal from Iraq has the best chance of ending
the violence. His experience with Iraqis dispels many myths that Americans
have about Iraq. Two key myths are particularly important:
First, Iraqis consistently
tell him that the violence will start abating when the U.S. announces
plans to leave. One Iraqi tribal leader reversed Bush’s rhetoric
and said “when the U.S. stands down Iraqis will stand up.”
The consistent view is that the root cause of the violence is the occupation.
Second, there will not be
a civil war if the U.S. leaves in fact the chance of civil war increases
if the U.S. stays. Iraqis do not need the U.S. to deal with the sectarian
conflict between Sunni and Shia. There is not a sectarian civil war
in progress nor will one erupt. Over and over Dal heard from Iraqis
that they have mixed marriages. One quipped “I am Sunni my wife
if Shia I don’t need American soldiers to protect me from my wife.”
What is brewing is a political civil war the nationalists vs. the separatists.
Dal has provided transcripts,
video tapes and summaries of his meetings with Iraqis on his website,
www.LaMagnaForPresident.com.
While Iraq is first and foremost
on Dal’s issue list he is also running with a philosophy of transparent
government. He was the founder of the Progressive Government Institute
(PGI), a non-partisan, educational organization dedicated to ensuring
transparency and accountability in the executive branch of the United
States federal government. And, as part of his campaign he plans to
gradually announce his executive branch appointments as he runs. He
wants the public to see the team they are electing if the vote for him.
And, Dal is an advocate for
“responsible capitalism” and has been an executive in a
multi-national company that practiced it. Dal LaMagna is also known
as Tweezerman, the name of the company he founded in 1980, built it
into a multi-national, premier personal care tool brand and sold in
2004. His company practiced responsible capitalism which LaMagna made
part of the company’s mission. The mission included benefiting
all stakeholders – including financial partners, employees, customers,
vendors, the community and the natural environment. As a result when
LaMagna sold Tweezerman his U.S. employees kept their jobs and shared
$10 million dollars in capital gains because each one was a shareholder
in the company.
LaMagna received his MBA
from Harvard Business School in 1971 and his master’s in public
administration in 2002 from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
LaMagna is a long standing member of the Social Venture Network (SVN),
a group of responsible capitalists promoting social and economic justice
through their businesses. He served on its Advisory Board of Directors
for two years. He now serves on the Board of the Bainbridge Graduate
Institute which offers an MBA in sustainable business.
LaMagna is convinced that
American voters are tired of business as usual. With the unpopularity
of the president, the Congress and both political parties, LaMagna is
going to be taking a different approach to politics. And, because the
top issue on the voter’s agenda is Iraq, LaMagna is going to use
his campaign to show the public that the war can be ended – quickly
and responsibly. He plans to begin to run television advertisements
that will feature Iraqi’s speaking to Americans directly.
This will be a campaign to
watch as it will be different from any other – different not only
for the 2008 campaign but different from any that has come before it.
For more information on Dal
LaMagna’s presidential campaign visit www.LaMagnaForPresident.com.
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