OntheWilderSide

The Democrats Want the Peace Movement to Work for Them; The Peace Movement Needs to Demand the Democrats End the War

by Kevin Zeese

Rep. Chris Van Hollen is the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  It is his job to preserve and expand the Democrats majority in Congress in 2008. Rep. Van Hollen is also my congressman.  So, this week when he held a town hall meeting I was paying close attention to his message on the Iraq War.

From his talk it is quite clear what the Democrats want. They want the peace movement to work for the Democratic Party rather than the Democratic Party representing the peace movement.

At the meeting there were signs held in the audience urging “use the power of the purse to end the war” and “support vets not war” and people in the audience held “defund the war” signs. A mother of a vet, Tina Richards, whose son is getting ready to return for his third tour of duty in Iraq, read a poem by her son that explained why he works for peace and described his despair, his thoughts of suicide and the horrors he saw in Iraq. (See link below to read this powerful poem.)  When she urged a cut-off of funds the audience of several hundred cheered wildly.

But, Rep. Van Hollen, who is the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not commit to not voting to fund the war.  Instead he pointed to the recent non-binding resolution passed by the House opposing the “surge” as a first step. He highlighted how the Republicans blocked even a vote on that in the Senate. He reminded people that he opposed the war and voted against the use of force resolution. (But, he didn’t mention how he has voted for all of the $420 billion in funding for the war.)  He concluded to end the war we need to build a political movement because we could not stop the war with the current Democratic majorities in Congress. . . .

Read the rest of the article.

Kevin Zeese is Director of DemocracyRising.US and a co-founder of VotersForPeace.US.  Zeese was Ralph nader’s campaign manager, and a Green Party candidate for US Senate.

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