Editorial: We keep giving them money, they keep funding the illegal war

The Democratic-led Congress authorized more Iraq war spending on Friday, sending President George W. Bush a defense bill requiring no change in strategy after failing again to impose a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals.



Susan Cornwell brought the bad news Friday in "Congress authorizez war funds and sends bill to Bush" (Reuters). Cornwell reports that 90 senators voted in favor and only 3 voted against (it had already passed the House). Ellen Ferguson (Gannet News Service) explains the three to vote against the measure were Russ Feingold, Robert Byrd and Bernie Sanders. If you can handle simple math, you can add it up and discover only 93 senators voted and there are one hundred members of the Senate. Who didn't vote?



Joe Biden didn't vote. Barbara Boxer didn't vote. Hillary Clinton didn't vote. Chris Dodd didn't vote. Daniel Inouye didn't vote. John McCain didn't vote. Barack Obama didn't vote. All but Boxer and Inouye are running for president. Of the two not running for president, it's difficult to determine which is worse, Boxer who has self-presented as opposed to the illegal war or Inouye who has been an illegal war lover for far too long (and has been in the Senate for far too long -- we're not just talking term limits, we're talking the age issue).



It's a close call but we got with coward Inouye. The cowardly legislature refuses to show a backbone, whether it's his membership in the Gang of 14 in 2005 or his refusal to speak out in support of Ehren Watada or any other issue, we think the senator should have left the senate long before he turned 80. Watada?



That any Hawaiian Democratic politician wouldn't support Watada is a huge betrayal since they all benefitted from the work his father Bob Watada did.



Which really gets to an important issue: contributions.



If you're against the illegal war and you're contributing to a candidate who is not, why are you contributing? Because some website told you to and provided you with a link so they could be 'blog fathers' (the web, like many a religious figure, has no mother apparently)?



If you've donated to candidates before, take a moment to add up how much money you've given. If those candidates aren't fighting to end the illegal war, do you feel that was money wasted?



What if, instead of forking over cash to candidates, it went to organizations trying to end the illegal war?



Friday, in a profile on GOP presidential contender Ron Paul, NOW with David Branccacio noted that Paul had raised over four-million-dollars online in one day. [Note, Zephyr Teachout is featured in extra footage online -- which is good because Ava and C.I. were confused by several statements she made that didn't also include explanations -- such as her claim that the race itself didn't matter, it was the movement being created around Paul. To agree or disagree with such a statement, you really need to know what she means by the movement and why she feels it is so important.] Viewers were informed that many were making $100 donations. What if that type of energy that goes into funding candidates (we're not for Paul, but we will note he is against the illegal war) went into funding organizations working to end the illegal war?



Why are we so quick to fund personalities and not organizations?



Now it's true that any peace organization you can think of will probably provide some with a sense of disappointment (sometimes deserved, sometimes not) but what if that kind of energy went into funding efforts to end the illegal war as opposed to efforts to put people who won't even call for an end to the illegal war into office?



Iraq Veterans Against the War are staging an action in March:



In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.
Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan



The event will run from March 13th through the 15th and take place in DC. IVAW has had tremendous growth in membership and chapters and done so with very little money.



What if people put the kind of money they give to politician's campaigns into groups like IVAW?



If groups working to end the illegal war (IVAW, Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK, World Can't Wait, A.N.S.W.E.R., United for Peace and Justice and others) were funded with donations the way politicians are, how far along do you think the peace movement would be today?



Paul's donations were based on his own personal appeal. But the young man (who has never even voted before and has never met Paul) who organized the donation drive did so around an event: Guy Fawkes Day (an event made famous to most young Americans today via the film V).

Today, he reportedly broke the previous record ($4.2 million) and brought in $4.3 million and the theme for today's fundraiser was the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.



How could the peace movement work for donations more effectively? That's a question to be pondered.



[For the three who wrote their angry e-mails regarding "Who's killing the peace movement?," we're not shying away from the topic due to your e-mails. You were outnumbered in the thousands and, for the first time ever, the feature prompting the most e-mails in one week wasn't Ava and C.I.'s TV commentaries.]



There are days that can be tied into fundraising -- such as the anniversary of the start of the illegal war -- very easily. What would a fully funded peace movement look like? That's the question to ask as the year ends and the illegal war continues.