Tension Mounts as Antiwar Movement Challenges Dems' Commitment to Stop the War

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/7380

Tension Mounts as Antiwar Movement Challenges Dems' Commitment to Stop the War
by Matt Taibbi | May 10 2007


There is a growing number of people out there who believe the Reid-Pelosi Iraq war supplemental is a gigantic crock of shit, and who think the Democratic Party leadership should now officially be labeled conspirators in the war effort. I've even seen it suggested that Reid and Pelosi should now be sent official "certificates of war ownership," to formally put them in a club with Bush, Cheney, Richard Perle and the rest of the actual war authors.

The growing tension between the real antiwar movement and the Democratic Party was reflected in a long article over the weekend in the New York Times. "Antiwar Groups Use New Clout to Influence Democrats." The piece that described how an umbrella group of antiwar activists called Americans Against the Escalation in Iraq was ready to drop the public relations hammer on the Dems, should they cave too easily in their negotiations with the president.

The thinking goes something like this: the Democrats, who are mostly the same people who voted for the war in the first place, don't really want to end it. They do, however, want to take political advantage of antiwar sentiment. So they will appear to be against the conflict but set things up in such a way that their "efforts" to end the war will fall just slightly short, like a fourth-quarter pass thrown by a point-shaving quarterback.

I was squarely in that camp until recently, when it occurred to me to wonder; if Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were to wake up one morning with innocent, uncorrupted brains and decide, really decide, to end the war in Iraq, how exactly would they do it? And the answer, I think we all have to admit, is: they would do it exactly the way they're doing it now.

Neither of these Democratic leaders, after all, are Huey Newton, or even Benjamin Spock. They are not going to get up on a table, shake a shoe in the direction of the White House, shout "Fuck you, pig!" and just turn off the money, consequences be damned. No, these are career bureaucrats, political herd animals who survive year after year by clinging for dear life to the concept of safety in numbers. They will watch the bushes with great big eyes to see what is rustling back there, and when exactly two-thirds of the herd decides to bolt, they all will -- not just the Democrats, but the Boehners and McConnells too, leaping over logs, tearing off big chunks of fur against the bark of trees, etc.

more...

[mike_c]

1. "...political herd animals...."

Damn, that certainly says it all! I agree with the movement position-- any "anti-war bill" that funds the war is a crock of shit!

[socretes73]

2. Majority Of **Iraqi*** Parliment Calls For Timetable

WHY IS THIS GETTING NO PRESS IN THE US?

Isn't this pretty darn significant?

I dont know how to start a new thread - if someone does
please do so this story needs to get out...




Iraqi lawmakers call for US withdrawal timetable
(AP)

10 May 2007 



BAGHDAD - A majority of Iraqi lawmakers have signed onto draft
legislation calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of
foreign troops from Iraq and demanding a freeze on the number
of such troops already in the country, lawmakers said on
Thursday.


The legislation was being discussed even as U.S. lawmakers
were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call
to start reducing the size of the U.S. force here in the
coming months.

The proposed Iraqi legislation, drafted by the parliamentary
bloc loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, was
signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, according to
Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc.

The Sadrist bloc, which holds 30 parliamentary seats and sees
the U.S.-led forces as an occupying army, has pushed similar
bills before, but this would be the first time it had garnered
the support of a majority of lawmakers.

The bill would require the Iraqi government to seek approval
from parliament before it requests an extension of the UN
mandate for foreign forces to be in Iraq, al-Rubaie said. It
also calls for a timetable for the troop withdrawal and a
freeze on the size of the foreign forces.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously in November to
extend the U.S.-led forces’ mandate until the end of 2007. The
resolution, however, said the council “will terminate this
mandate earlier if requested by the government of Iraq.”

The measure, which has not yet been introduced in parliament,
reflects growing disenchantment among the lawmakers over U.S.
involvement in Iraq and the government’s failure to curb the
violence in the country.

Ali al-Adeeb, a senior Shiite lawmaker and an aide to Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki, was skeptical about the wisdom of
asking foreign forces to leave when Iraqi forces were not
ready to take over full responsibility for security in the
country.

“Their withdrawal will not benefit anyone if our forces are
not ready,” said al-Adeeb, who said he did not back the bill.
“There must be a commitment from foreign parties to train our
forces.”

Al-Rubaie said he personally handed the Iraqi bill to speaker
Mahmoud Al Mashhadani on Wednesday.

Deputy Speaker Khaled Al Attiyah told The Associated Press
said the draft legislation had not been officially submitted
to the speaker, but was currently being reviewed by the
house’s legal department, apparently the final step before it
can be submitted.

Al Rubaie said Al Mashhadani had a week to schedule a debate
on the bill before he would use the majority that backs it to
force one.

However, his majority might be shaky.

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said he had backed the draft
but only on the condition that the withdrawal timetable be
linked to a schedule for training and equipping Iraq’s
security forces.

“But the sponsors of the legislation did not include our
observations in the draft. This is deception,” he said.

Al Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, which launched two uprisings
against U.S. troops in 2004, has been blamed in much of the
recent sectarian violence against Sunnis and has been one of
the main targets of a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown.

Last month, the cleric ordered his six Cabinet ministers to
leave the government after the Shiite prime minister refused
to put a timetable for foreign troops withdrawal.

[OneBlueSky]

3. Congress has become expert at creating the illusion of something happening . . .

while ensuring that nothing substantive does, in fact, happen . . . thus oxymorons like anti-war bills that fund the war . . .