In the November elections, the American people sent a clear message that they are fed up with the Iraq war and the Bush agenda and want a change. Yet despite being elected on an anti-war, anti-Bush mandate, the new Democratic Congress has refused to use their power to end the U.S.s role in the chaos and destruction in Iraq.
When new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked if the new Congress would cut off war funds she replied, Absolutely not as long as our troops are in harm’s way, Democrats will be there to support them.
Instead, the Democrats are poised to vote in favor of a record $481 billion Pentagon budget for 2008, and to give Bush another $100 billion to implement the surge and continue the war in Iraq through the fall of 2008.
In order to camouflage their continued funding of this criminal war and attempt to appease anti-war sentiment, they have attached a provision to this spending bill that would require Bush to withdraw combat forces from Iraq by the fall of 2008. But continuing the war through 2008 will prolong it another 18 months, causing the deaths of over 1,300 more Americans if the rate of casualties remains the same as the previous18 months (and it may very well go up significantly given Bushs troop surge). There will also be an untold number of Iraqi deaths, and billions of dollars more wasted which could instead be used to fund healthcare, education and other social needs.
This resolution will also lack teeth unless the Democrats are willing to cut off funding in 2008. Given their record, is there any reason to trust them?
The hypocrisy of the support the troops rhetoric that both the Democrats and Republicans hide behind has been exposed recently by the scandals at Walter Reed, where hundreds of wounded vets were housed in horrendous conditions. The hundreds of billions spent on the war goes into the pockets of military contractors and weapons manufacturers, while rank-and-file soldiers are used as cannon-fodder.
We say that the best way to support the troops is to bring them home now! We cannot rely on the Democrats to end this war. The Democratic Party, as the second party of Corporate America and its empire, has been complicit in this war and the Bush agenda from the beginning. The Democratic leadership voted to approve Bushs war, the Patriot Act, and (up until September 2007) approved over $439 billion for the Iraq War (Center for Defense Information, 8/1/06)! This as the working class (who pays for this war) suffers from budget cuts to healthcare, education, and other social services.
This shows how futile it is for the anti-war movement to support the Democrats. While a few progressive Democrats may come out against the war and push for strong antiwar measures, they are few and far between and get buried by the right-wing leadership of the party. Antiwar activists need to break from the Democrats and help run independent, antiwar, and working class candidates locally and nationally, to challenge the war, imperialism, and attacks on working class peoples standard of living.