A Solution for the Peace Movement

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A Solution for the Peace Movement
Social Justice and Activism
by David Swanson | January 20, 2008 - 10:27am

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Congress has the power to bring all troops, mercenaries, and contractors home safely this year. The cost of bringing them home is minimal and already covered by funds appropriated for wars and for a military budget that eats up over half of every tax dollar. We cannot afford another year of damaged world relations, of dead bodies, and of enormous financial expense. Representatives can commit to voting No on any appropriations bill that would give another dime to the occupation of Iraq, and can demonstrate their seriousness by voting No even on bringing such bills up for a vote. Senators can and must commit to filibustering the same type of bills. It takes 41 senators or 51% of representatives to apply a tourniquet to this disaster, stop the bleeding, and bring our men and women home. There could be no better economic stimulus plan than investing all the money we're wasting in Iraq in the U.S. economy.

The above approach is controversial within the U.S. peace movement. It is a more difficult approach than some to get off the ground. It does not have the support of many in Congress. In particular, not one single senator has yet stepped out in favor of a filibuster. But, even while conceding that this approach is more difficult to get started, it is possible to make a strong case that it is the most likely approach to, in the end, actually succeed. We could much more easily get 10 or 20 congress members to start promoting a bill. But getting that bill through the Senate and past a veto will be much harder than succeeding with the approach described above. So, we have to ask ourselves whether our goal is to start something that's doomed to fail, or to try to start something that may get nowhere but is still more likely to succeed, and also more likely to build toward success in future years.

The approach I'm suggesting has the following advantages over promoting a bill or leaving Congress alone for a year and just focusing on elections:

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