6-29-06, 9:05 am
While both houses of Congress still lag dramatically behind the people of this country and Iraq in opposing the war, we've recently seen a sharp rise in Congressional willingness to talk about peace. Votes in both the House and the Senate have forced members to go on record on troop withdrawal, permanent bases, and other war-related issues. More members than ever before went on record for peace, or at least against the war without end that Bush has been peddling. Your calls, faxes and emails, your participation in public protests have all helped to create significant movement in Congress. They voted; now we have to hold them accountable. It is critical that our elected representatives know we are paying attention, and that we will continue to pressure them to take action to end the war in bring all the troops home, now!
Email or phone your Senators and Representative today!
No Permanent Bases For the second time this year, both the House and Senate have voted overwhelmingly against permanent bases in Iraq. It was a huge victory for the peace movement, with a majority of Republicans voting against the Bush administration. Even one pro-war Republican, Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), had this to say about the bases:
'It sends the wrong message. Not only to the people of Iraq, not only to the people of America, but to the people of other Muslim nations who might say ... hey, are we next? Are we going to be occupied? Are we going to have American troops in our streets?'
Bring the Troops Home On June 15, the House leadership responded to the peace movement's calls for a debate on the war. They gave us a carefully orchestrated series of speeches on a bill that was pure propaganda for the war. The Republican leadership is so afraid of the antiwar movement that they refused to let even Republicans offer alternative proposals to the Bush policy. The only vote they allowed was on a simplistic piece of propaganda in support of the war, freedom and the U.S. troops.
In spite of the war mongers' best efforts, we can take heart in the fact that 158 members of Congress voted 'no' (or lodged a protest 'present' vote) to this outrageous political maneuver. Still, 256 members of Congress proved how out of touch they are with the rest of the country by voting to support war without limit.
See if your Representative voted for war without end.
What Does This All Mean? If you just took the word of the mainstream media, you might think there's been no movement in Congress. But in fact, the change in the Senate has been phenomenal. To understand how far we have come, it is helpful to see where we were just a few months ago, when the only antiwar legislation was a very weak measure asking Bush to come up with a plan on Iraq. That's all, just a plan ... and only two Senators dared to support it!
Two weeks ago, we asked you to contact your Senators and ask them to vote to end the war. Since then, the Senate has voted on three different amendments calling for the withdrawal of troops. Even the weakest of these amendments was stronger than what we have seen previously.
The strongest stand was taken by Senators Feingold, Kennedy, Boxer, Kerry, Harkin and Byrd, who voted to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. A weaker amendment sponsored by Boxer, Kerry and Feingold, calling for the withdrawal of all troops by next summer, got 13 votes. Although neither of these amendments supports the UFPJ position of 'out now,' Senators who voted for them should be thanked, and encouraged to work for an immediate end to the war.
Sen. Levin's non-binding resolution calling for the troops to begin to withdraw by the end of this year got the support of 38 Democrats and one Republican. This considerably weaker amendment still takes the Senate closer to ending the war. Most Senators who supported this amendment will now consider their work on the war done. It is not. They need to be told that a vote for the Levin amendment was not nearly enough.
The votes in the Senate and the House over the last weeks leave the door open to us to push them farther than they have been willing to go before to end the war. We have to make the most of this opportunity to let them know that the peace movement is watching them, and we are not satisfied with theatrics and rhetoric. We will only be satisfied with an immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Write or call your Senators today.
Background For a more complete summary of Congressional actions on Iraq in the last 2 weeks, please visit our website. www.unitedforpeace.org
