Can the Peace Movement Reach President Obama?

NoEscalation.org: Can the Peace Movement Reach President Obama?

 

By Robert Naiman

Common Dreams

October 22, 2009

 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/22-8

 

If there were ever a time when the peace movement should

be able to have an impact on U.S. foreign policy, that

time should be now. If there were ever a time for

extraordinary effort to achieve such an impact, that time is now.

 

The war in Afghanistan is in its ninth year.

McChrystal's proposal could continue it for another ten

years, at a likely cost of a trillion dollars, and many

more lives of U.S. soldiers and Afghan civilians. The

contradiction between domestic needs and endless war was

never more apparent. Congress fights over whether we can

"afford" to provide every American with quality health

care, but every health care reform proposal on the table

will likely cost less than McChrystal's endless war. A

recent CNN poll says 6 in 10 Americans oppose sending more troops.

 

Democratic leaders in Congress are deeply skeptical: as

far back as June, Rep. Murtha and Rep. Obey voted for

Rep. McGovern's amendment demanding an exit strategy,

and that was before the Afghan election fiasco, when

international forces failed at their key objective of

providing security, and before McChrystal demanded a 60%

increase in U.S. forces, on top of the 50% increase

approved earlier this year. Our troops are "exhausted," Murtha says.

 

Top Administration officials share the skepticism. Vice-

President Biden, Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, and

Afghan scholar Barnett Rubin, an advisor to Ambassador

Holbrooke, have all been arguing against a troop

increase: the political people on the grounds that the

American people and Congress won't support it; Biden on

the grounds that it would be a diversion from Pakistan;

Rubin on the grounds that it would be counterproductive

to reconciliation in Afghanistan.

 

Elite opinion is closely divided. This is a jump ball.

It could go either way. And a decision by Nobel Laureate

Obama to send 40,000 more U.S. troops is likely to

severely constrain U.S. policy, abroad and at home, for many years.

 

Such a time calls for extraordinary efforts to mobilize

public opinion to move policy.

 

National peace advocacy organizations, including Peace

Action, Just Foreign Policy, Code Pink, United for Peace

and Justice, and Voters for Peace, are launching such an

extraordinary effort. At the joint website

noescalation.org, we're posting the phone numbers of

every Congressional office, and what is known so far

about where they stand on the proposal to send 40,000

more U.S. troops. We're asking Americans to call

Congressional offices and search the media for

information on where each Member of Congress stands. And

we're asking for that information to be reported back to

the website noescalation.org.

 

The more Members of Congress take a clear stand against

military escalation, the more likely President Obama is

to reject McChrystal's request. Some Members of Congress

are saying, "we're waiting to see what the President

decides." But that nonsense is an obvious dodge. The

time to affect the President's decision is obviously

before he makes it, not afterwards. Of course some

Members of Congress are going to avoid taking a position

if they can. Our job is to smoke them out.

 

Call now. The Norwegians are counting on you.

__________________

 

Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy