How to Raise the Social Costs to the Power Elite Re: the case against the case against "regime change" in Iraq

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 5:25 PM -0500 11/8/02, Nathan Newman wrote:
>  >It is exactly the swing pro-war Dems and moderate Repubicans who the
>>antiwar movement has to convince.
>
>-Many, many Americans contacted their representatives and made their
>-arguments against the war, by calling, e-mailing, faxing, writing,
>-lobbying in person, using civil disobedience, holding demos and
>-vigils, etc.  Regardless, Congress already passed the resolution
>-giving Bush the power to make war on Iraq unilaterally:
>
>Oh God- the "bring the war home" strategy was also such a success. Piss
>people off until they stop bombing.
>
>If Bush is going to invade Iraq, the left can do nothing and that phase of
>conflict will be over too quickly for "social costs" to matter.  The
>question then will be what happens next, which will require more political
>rounds.
>
>There is no overwhelming mandate for military action-- the response of the
>Dems was to elect as minority leader in the House the leader of the antiwar
>mobilizing against Bush's resolution.  For what punditry is worth, most
>pundits think the Dems lost by failing to establish clear differences with
>the White House.
>
>Having just pushed out Gephardt and gotten an antiwar Democrat installed as
>head of the Democratic Caucus in the House, why would anyone think that
>politics is irrelevant to what needs to happen?
>
>-- Nathan Newman

Politics doesn't equal pleading to Congressional Dems.  What DP did 
to pass the resolution giving Bush the power to invade Iraq, it can't 
and won't undo at this point.  If Congressional Dems want attention 
of anti-war activists, they, as our servants, have to bring a 
concrete proposal to stop the war to us, not the other way around.

I don't know exactly how long it will take for the US military to 
completely take over Iraq, but if it is short as you predict, the US 
government will have more incentives to embark upon attacks 
elsewhere, while occupying Iraq for an indefinite period of time.
-- 
Yoshie

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