[Peace-discuss] Bring Them Home Now

[jencart]

Yo Yoshie, whoever you are -- FYI, ANSWER has organized a MAJOR protest w/ a Bring-Them-Home-NOW theme..... I think it's June 5th in DC. And, BTW, if any one person has been an influence in that direction, it's Dennis Kucinich.... And re the enormously disappointing Kerry -- who, as Chomsky sez, we all must vote for bec the neocons are even more dangerous and extreme/e g think another Scolia -- last I heard he was saying 4 more years to "accomplish our mission"

Jenifer C.
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[From Yohsie Furuhashi, who runs the interesting and erudite blog, Critical Montages.  --CGE]
                                                                                
Since July 7, 2003, I've been arguing for immediate US withdrawal.  I'm happy that I've played a modest role in having the slogan Bring Them Home Now adopted by others:
                                                                                
"Mon Jul 7...
                                                                                
"Dear Organizers & Activists:

"Let's organize a campaign (letters, petitions, sit-ins, demonstrations, etc.) to bring soldiers home now -- before Washington decides to escalate the size of the army of occupation dramatically.  Soldiers want to go home, their families and friends want them home, and Iraqis want them out of their country -- and yet, surprisingly, no major anti-war coalition is currently focused on a campaign to bring them home now.  Why???  Get a campaign started wherever you are, and call on all anti-war coalitions ...   to initiate a coordinated campaign with a simple message: Bring Them Home Now."

By now, my position has been adopted by the majority of rank-and-file Democrats: "In an ABC/Washington Post survey released Monday, 53% of Democrats said the U.S. 'should withdraw its military forces from Iraq ... even if that means civil order is not restored there'"  (Ronald Brownstein, "Kerry Feels Squeeze on Iraq Policy: While Bush Moves Ever Closer to His Challenger's Ideas, More Democrats Are Calling for a Pullout," Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2004):

***

"Recent polls have shown rising support among Democrats for withdrawal. And Win Without War plans a nationwide series of demonstrations in late June to push for a firm date.

"'We are going to be making that case as vigorously as we can to the American people,' said Tom Andrews, Win Without War's national director and a former Democratic House member from Maine.

"While the liberal coalition veers away from Kerry, Bush over the last several weeks has crowded the Massachusetts senator by executing what many analysts see as a major midcourse correction on Iraq ...

"'Kerry's position is being eroded,' said one top Democratic foreign policy analyst who asked not to be named. 'Kerry is in a position where the best he will be able to say is that Bush is finally doing what I said to do all along.'

"Compounding Kerry's problem, doubts are growing among Democrats to the open-ended commitment in Iraq that he echoes Bush in supporting.  In an ABC/Washington Post survey released Monday, 53% of Democrats said the U.S. 'should withdraw its military forces from Iraq ... even if that means civil order is not restored there.'

"Voices influential in Democratic circles are also promoting withdrawal. In recent articles, James B. Steinberg, the deputy national security advisor under President Clinton, and Leslie Gelb, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, have said the U.S. should set a 'date certain' for the withdrawal of all American troops.

"Such a step, they arg