[Peace-discuss] Notes from meeting with Durbin and Obama

[Robert Naiman]

This morning I went to the "constituent coffee" of Sens. Durbin and
Obama. Some very incomplete notes follow. Not for citation, just to
give you a sense of what was said.

I said (paraphrase): I want to thank Senator Durbin for his criticism
of mistreatment of detainees at Guantanamo, especially in light of the
events of the past week. I want to ask both of you, it's been reported
in the press that Senator Kerry is introducing an amendment that would
require most U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the
year. Do you support this, and if you don't support it, what for you
is the limit? And also, what are you doing to pressure the Bush
Administration not to attack Iran and to pursue real negotiations?

Obama said (paraphrase): The detainees at Guantanamo need to be
charged and brought to trial. What is going on there is not making us
more safe. I was against the war, but I said that once we're in, we
can't cut and run. I want US troops to come home from Iraq as quickly
as possible, but I'm concerned that if we completely withdraw now
there may be a bloodbath, hundreds of thousands slaughtered, and that
would be on our conscience. In Iran, there is an extraordinarily
dangerous regime, its President wants to destroy our ally Israel. We
can't let this regime get nuclear weapons. But it's hard to see how a
military assault on Iran will improve the situtation. This would not
be a surgical strike that would be over in a day. This would last
weeks, tens of thousands of casualties, retaliation in Iraq. Before
the Bush Administration was talking about this but now they are
pursuing a more reasonable course.

Durbin said (paraphrase): I did criticize Guantanamo, I took some
lumps for that, but what's going on there is not right, in the past we
have done things in war that we look back on and regret, like the
internment of Japanese-Americans…I plan to visit there soon, I'm
negotiating with the Administration because I'm not going to go on the
VIP tour. Too many of my colleagues have done that, I want to see
what's really going on. On Iraq, 6 months is too short, but it should
not be indefinite, the Iraqis have to take responsibility, what Bush
said there was not helpful, by saying that we will be there as long as
it takes, there has to be an end. On Iran, it's outrageous that the
Bush Administration talked about using nuclear weapons, we should have
a clear no first strike policy, if we don't do this what does it say
to the Indians and the Pakistanis.

Laurie Hasbrook, Chicago (paraphrase): But it's already a bloodbath. I
don't understand why the two of you keep voting for the supplemental
appropriations.

Obama (paraphrase) Threat of civil war. I admit it's bad now. But it
could be much worse. We should start pulling troops out this year. But
we have to provide some support. "John Kerry may be right that if we
brought all our troops home tomorrow the situation would improve." [Of
course, that's is not Kerry's position. Kerry's staff were amused when
I told them that Obama said that.]

Durbin (paraphrase): 23 Senators voted against the war. I was one of
those 23. A six-month withdrawal would be precipitous. But I'm getting
closer and closer to saying that it's not too far beyond 6 months.
There's another amendment coming and I am going to be supporting that.
(I have a message in to Durbin's aide on Iraq, Richard Purcell, to
find out what this other amendment is. Kerry's amendment has been
referred to committee, they are hoping to attach it to the DoD
appropriation in the next week or so, they currently have no
co-sponsors.)


--
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org