Eighth
Anniversary
of
starting of Iraq War
19 Mar 2011
Gathering at Lafayetter Park directly
across from the White House,
Veterans
for
Peace,
Code Pink,
World
Can't
Wait and
ANSWER
were the main sponsors of the demonstration. The draw-down of troops in
Iraq proceeds according to the
schedule
agreed
upon by President G.W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, so the main focus of the protest was the war in Afghanistan,
which President Obama said would be seriously reduced by June 2011, but
it looks as though an American presence is planned
for
a
very long time. Of couse, US troops will not be housed in
"permanent bases," no, no, no, they'll be in “joint facilities,” which
is, uh, different, erm, somehow.
A neat visual was to get a whole bunch
of folks lined up with pink umbrellas with the White House as their
backdrop. So, how does the progressive movement feel about
launching
a
war on
Libya?
The
UNAC Steering Committee is
against
interfering in other countries. Personally,
I
was
soured on a war there as soon as I heard who was in favor of it
(Basically, all the people who were in favor of the Iraq War).
Debra
Sweet of World Can't Wait speaks.
Betsey Piette invites Philadelphia progressives over to a debate on
what to do about Libya.
I also want to take this opportunity to
invite everyone to an upcoming Philly IAC forum on Libya. Sara
Flounders, a leading organizer of the International Action Center and a
member of the UNAC national steering committee, will be speaking in
Philadelphia on Tuesday March 29th at 7pm at the Calvary Church, 48th
& Baltimore. Whether or not you agree with the IAC position
on Libya, please feel free to come to this event to voice your
opinion/opposition. We welcome the debate.
Whatever else we can agree on, I don't
think there's any question that
President
Obama's
approach is much, much better than President G.W. Bush's.
Ross Douthat, the NY Times "official conservative" columnist, tries to
make the case that Clintonian liberal interventions are a bad thing,
but fails to make any such case. Not only that, but it's quite obvious
that he avoids making any such case that Bush's invasions were a good
thing, because they very obviously were not.
Ralph Nader gave a good speech. Ron Paul
(The two of them are allies)
printed
it.
What exactly are Obama's goals in Libya?
Hmm,
good
question. What happens in the case of all sorts of likely
contingencies? It's not really clear that even the planners know.
Next