States Surge Against Escalation in Iraq
How various state legislatures are expressing their outrage at the troop surge.
By Srinivas Rao, George Washington University
Wednesday February 28, 2007
On February 13 the Senate voted to condemn the president’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq and asked Bush to “obtain explicit approval from Congress if he wants to send more American troops to Iraq.”
Confused? Think Sacramento, not Washington: In an increasingly common practice, the Golden State decided to take foreign policy into its own hands instead of simply watching the U.S. Congress debate about how to debate. The California State Senate, lead by Senator Carole Midgen (D-San Francisco), rebuked the president’s Iraq policy with a non-binding resolution the likes of which Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) can only dream about.
California joined Vermont and Iowa in passing resolutions voicing disapproval of Bush’s troop surge, while Maryland, Maine, Connecticut, and Minnesota have all drafted official letters to the president for the same purpose. And more legislatures are poised to express their disapproval, with resolutions or letters pending in another 21 states, ranging from Massachusetts to Montana.
But as The Los Angeles Times points out, even if a more prominent resolution passed in Congress, it “would have no more force of law than the one approved [earlier this month] commending the Miss America Organization for its commitment to ‘the character of women in the United States.’” What hope, then, can state governments have in their ability to effect U.S. foreign policy?
The Progressive States Network, which is leading the charge to pass anti-surge resolutions at the state level, argues that states do have a considerable voice in the foreign policy process. “Historically, there have been a number of precedents for states taking stances on foreign policy issues that affect them; you can go back to Vietnam, to Apartheid, to free trade agreements.” Joel Barkin, Executive Director of the Progressive States Network told Campus Progress. “Can state legislatures have a binding affect on foreign policy? No. But they can send a clear message and put political pressure on those who represent them in Congress.”
Indeed, political pressure from states has often been essential to forcing politicians in Washington to listen to their constituents back home. “When seven states passed an increase in the minimum wage, we got 380 votes to increase it [in the House] with 80 Republicans supporting it as well,” said Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Ma.), a supporter of Progressive States Network’s efforts in a teleconference with resolution supporters. “They did it because they knew what was happening at the state level.”
Outside of the pressure exerted on Congress, these resolutions can also have far-reaching political consequences. Much like the anti-tax pledges interest groups like Americans for Tax Reform have convinced politicians at the state level to sign, anti-surge resolutions will give voters important information on what the future class of politicians thinks about this unpopular war. “One of the things that the right-wing understands is how to use state legislatures to create wedge issues against the left,” Barkin said. “Getting politicians on record in favor or in opposition to the war will be very important politically in the future.”
A debate on foreign policy, though, can also be a chance to shamelessly grandstand, and some legislators have taken every opportunity to accuse opponents of escalation of hating the United States: California State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) claims that the anti-surge resolution passed in the California State Senate “emboldens our enemies."
"This resolution simply tells al-Qaida and other state sponsors of terrorism, ‘we’ve got the Americans on the run,’” Hollingsworth said. “They are crumbling in state legislatures all over the country.”
This argument is somewhat dubious, however, when polls show that more than 60 percent of the U.S. public is in favor of congressional action against Bush’s troop surge. And the underlying claim—that al-Qaida operatives are keeping tabs on state legislature resolutions—is even more questionable.
But the allegations of anti-Americanism don’t hold up well when one realizes that most of the resolutions are explicit in stating that their purpose is to help Americans and Iraqis by bringing an end to a pointless, bloody conflict. The resolution that passed in the Iowa Senate, for example, states that “an open-ended commitment of United States forces in Iraq is unsustainable and a deterrent to the Iraqis making the political compromises … that are needed for violence to end and for stability and security to be achieved.”
Another, less politically-motivated criticism cites the fact that the language of the majority of these anti-surge resolutions is based on a national model written by the Progressive States Network in order to emphasize that the nation is united against the surge. Since these resolutions are written for Kansans as well as New Yorkers, though, they may not accurately reflect the unique constituencies of the different state legislatures. The San Jose Mercury News, for instance, called the resolution passed by the California Senate a “yawn,” arguing that the progressive legislature could have passed a much harsher condemnation of the Bush administration if it had strayed from the Progressive State Network’s language.
Tracy Fairchild, communications director for Migden, the state senator from San Francisco, argues that such criticism misses the point. “There’s little value at throwing stones at the language,” Fairchild said. “The goal is getting the attention of our congressional delegation and the nation, and I think we did that.”
The ultimate goal of any anti-surge state resolution is to force Congress to stop the political bickering and listen to their constituents on Iraq. But regardless of their immediate effect on the national level, these resolutions prove there are still legislatures in this country where the will of the majority is expressed.
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I am a 100% disabled Vietnam era veteran and I flew cross country from Oregon to D.C. to the Peace March on Congress on Jan 27th in Washington D.C. I then lobbied Congress members on Monday Jan 29th to make BINDING resolutions to end the war in Iraq. Because of my physical condition and being on fixed income, I really have no business doing such things. America’s youth needs to pick up the slack in our domestic war to recapture our country which has become a corporatocracy run by big business, as well as entities that would tear down the wall between church and state. We are in the most dangerous period in our history with the president attacking the Constitution and such rights as habeus corpus and privacy. I plead with all who read this to act. It is not enough to send emails or make phone calls — the time has come for strong demonstrations — it is the only way Congress will get the message that we, the people, run the country. Most think only of reelection, on both sides of the aisle. For the sake of your future and the future of our this nation and our Constitution, I urge you to act now and not stop and without letup. The following are bits of wisdom from heroes past and present, as well as a warning I, sadly, feel I must add to all posts and blogs and I encourage you to read them and hold them to you and use them as encouragement to act:
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WARNING: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, and provisions passed by the previous Republican-controlled Congress, the National Security Agency may have read this email, my blog postings, and may listen to my private phone conversations without warrant, warning, or notice, and certainly without probable cause. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. They may also arrest me without telling me of any charges against me, and hold me secretly and indefinitely in an undisclosed location without notifying my wife or relatives, and with no access to an attorney. I/We have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President and voting to remove rubber-stamp Republicans from office.
“Remember, all that Hitler did was legal in Germany at the time.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
“A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.” ~ Golda Meir
“The provision of the Constitution giving war-making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, for the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and (thus), they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.“ ~Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to his friend and law partner William H. Herndon (15 February 1848)
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.“ ~Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
“Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting, but they have something missing in their natures; there is a hole, an empty place, and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen.” ~Peggy Noonan
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.” ~Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address
“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.” ~Thomas Jefferson (Motto on his seal)
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” ~James Madison
“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country.” ~George Washington
“Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” ~James Madison
“The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” ~Edmund Burke
“Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic. But will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.” ~Thomas Jefferson
“Government is not reason and it is not eloquence. It is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” ~George Washington
“The nobility of the soldier willing to give a life for country and God
lies silent and still amidst the broken promises of leaders.
Send them not to futile sacrifice on shores so far from home.
But keep your word to all that serve that none shall die in vain.” ~ a poem by Rich Raitano, a brother Vietnam era medic
“A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come from it.” ~Wm. Penn
“Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively, and if after all this time, and all of this sacrifice, and of all this support, there is no end in sight, then I say for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past.” ~ Richard Nixon, 1968
“A little patience (and action), and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.” ~Thomas Jefferson, 1798
“Laws are the sovereigns of sovereigns.” ~Louis XIV
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” ~John F. Kennedy
“So long as one wants to retain one’s sword, one has not attained complete fearlessness… Peace will never come until the great powers courageously decide to disarm themselves… What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?...There is no such thing as shooting out of love… Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty… No government on earth can make men who have realized freedom in their hearts salute against their will. “ ~Mahatma Gandhi
“All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Liberalism… is the supreme form of generosity; it is the right which the majority concedes to minorities and hence it is the noblest cry that has ever resounded in this planet. It announces the determination to share existence with the enemy; more than that, with an enemy which is weak.” ~Jose Ortega Y Gasset
“The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment.” ~Bertrand Russell
“Do not ever say that the desire to ‘do good’ by force is a good motive. Neither power, lust, stupidity (nor arrogance, nor vanity) are good motives.” ~ Ayn Rand
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there’s a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become victims of the darkness.” ~Justice William O. Douglas
“Before honor is humility.” ~Bible
“The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows … We are today not far from a disaster.” ~T.E. Lawrence(a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia); The Sunday Times, August 1920
“The people have a right to the truth as they have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” ~Epictetus
“How long will they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?” ~Bob Marley
— Bruce Freeman - Mar 2, 12:25 PM - #I believe our country is in great danger and that we cannot wait 2 more years to correct all the mistakes W has made. He has to go NOW!
— Mary Lou Czupek - Mar 11, 11:46 AM - #