...a good article making this exact point: "[http://counterpunch.org/parsneau05242007.html Becoming Imperialist: An Urgent Warning to Critics of the Iraq Wars]," by Arjun Chowdhury, Kevin Parsneau, and Mark Hoffman.
Here's their latest:
<blockquote>Dear MoveOn member,
Last night, Congress sent the president a blank check to continue the war through the summer. Anyway you slice it, it stinks. The worst part is that too many Democrats--who we elected in November with a clear mandate to lead us out of the chaos in Iraq--crumbled when we needed them to fight....</blockquote>
If they claim the earlier check they pushed for Congress to hand Bush wasn't blank, I guess they're right -- it had a decimal point with a wide space to the left and two zeros to the right.
I have severed my association with Moveon.org and the Democrat Party (The Repubs are right. The Democrats are not entitled to the "ic". They do not represent the people of this country.)
I had a short email correspondence with [[Tom Matzzie]] after Moveon.org began to develop their strategy to seize and consolidate power, damn the consequences. But then who suffers the consequences? Not the Democrats or Moveon.org members. Others do--the troops that fought and are still fighting this illegal war: the millions of Iraqis who have had hell rained down on them since 1991.
What was Matzzie's response when I emailed him about my concerns that my stepsons are fighting in an illegal war? My concerns that Moveon.org, an organization that I have supported for years, was losing its way? Oh, he'd like to meet me and sit and talk with me. After all, he lost a cousin in this war and he's spending every waking hour of every day doing what he can to stop this war. I got a version of the big picture argument. They are taking small steps, and yes, Rhoda, there will be many of these small steps, to get to the ultimate goal, Democrat control of the government.
Yesterday I got the usual email asking me to contact my Congressman. I did not waste the money on the long distance call. Instead I emailed Moveon.org and asked them if this total capitulation to the Bush Administration was what they intended all along. I asked how it was going to accomplish anything. I have not received a response nor do I expect one.
On May 25, 2007, [http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42139/story.htm Reuters reported]:
Targets and timetables for carbon emission cuts are still out but a call for a major meeting in December to agree the way forward on global warming is back in the latest draft conclusions to be put to next month's G8 summit. ...
Many other paragraphs stressing the urgency of the climate crisis remain deleted in the latest draft.
Diplomats says the cuts were made by a group of countries led by the United States but including Canada and Japan.
...is the imperialist foreign policy the U.S. has followed for a century or more.
How much of the public's sentiment against this war stems from true outrage at its criminality, and how much from buyer's remorse because this shiny new machine is burning so much more oil than it pumps?
"Anti-war" by itself isn't enough. We'll always have wars unless we become thoroughly disenchanted with militarism and imperialism by all their euphemisms. Vietnam didn't do it, and this war probably won't, even if it ends soon. That's the biggest thing MoveOn seems not to get.
On May 25, 2007, [http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42139/story.htm Reuters reported]:
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