.... I think it's a bad idea for people opposed to the war to urge a filibuster. There are both tactical and political reasons why it is a bad idea.
A filibuster can't possibly be effective in this situation. It was an effective tool for Southern segregationists for many years, but that was under entirely different circumstances. In the context of a 95-to-1 Senate vote to proceed with this debate, a filibuster could only be a show of weakness, not strength. It would be overridden in the blink of an eye, and it would start the Senate debate on the wrong foot with a dispute among opponents of the war, some of whom (to their credit) are ready to denounce the militarist approach.
That's the tactical side. The political side is more important:
This drive to war is not occurring in a vacuum. It is part of a campaign by the Bush war party to establish an imperial presidency that can implement an imperial foreign policy to create their vision of a new world order.
In this context, there is nothing that Bush and his cabal would like better than to weaken and marginalize Congress. If a filibuster is successful even for a short time (which is unlikely), it will give Bush an excuse to declare Congress ineffectual and proceed on his own authority. In fact he would simply get the support he needs from leading Senators outside the Senate halls and without a formal Senate debate. That is what he wanted to do anyway; it took a lot of pressure from former national leaders and some members of his own party to force Bush to include Congress in the process.
In short, a filibuster will play into the hands of the Bush war party by weakening Congress and helping Bush and his people to convince the American public that, for better or worse, only a strong President can lead the country on issues of war and peace.
A filibuster, if successful, will let some Senators off the hook by diverting public attention from the issue of the war to the issue of the propriety of tying up the Senate in procedural roadblocks. It is very important to make Senators go on record about this war. The drive toward war is not a single action, but a new direction for the country. The struggle will not end next week. It will not end when U.S. troops enter Iraq, and it will not end when the Iraqi military is defeated. Therefore, it matters how the anti-war movement mounts its opposition. Weakening or marginalizing the Senate in the futile hope of winning a short-lived tactical advantage will just make it harder to succeed against the imperial president and the imperial war party. _________________________ Joanna