[Peace-discuss] back-pressure against a "surge"

[karen medina]

So we are suggesting flooding the phone lines to our representatives 
"about the not-quite-yet-proposed surge/escalation in troops to Iraq"

Is Bush wanting to flood Iraq with troops so that when Israel attacks 
Iran, we'll have troops ready on the ground? The build up with ships and 
air power are already happening. "Mr. Bush is nominating Navy Adm. 
William Fallon to replace Gen. John Abizaid as the head of U.S. Central 
Command, which oversees U.S. military operations across the Middle East."

-karen medina

Stuart Levy wrote:
> Barbara Kessel, Karen Medina and I were talking after tonight's
> AWARE meeting, among other things about the not-quite-yet-proposed
> surge/escalation in troops to Iraq, a notion to which the Democrats
> seem to be softening day by day.
> 
> We wonder whether the countless leaks before the official announcement
> are intended as trial balloons, to test just how far they can push
> the Congress and the population, i.e. us.  Or, they might aim to soften
> us up: if some leaks called for 25000 new troops, won't we be relieved
> when the "official" version only calls for 15000?
> 
> So what can we do?  The Administration won't listen but the newly
> elected Congress may.  We need to let our representatives know
> emphatically that dumping more soldiers into Iraq is not something
> for which we can wait passively while the administration cooks up a
> justification, but something that's simply unacceptable.  That we expect
> them to find creative solutions to ending this war (like the one
> Carl mentioned at tonight's meeting, of rescinding the original
> authorization on the grounds that the reasons given for it do not apply).
> That if they stand up to the Pres., we'll back them up.  Whatever.
> 
> These are the same kinds of things that many people wrote eloquently
> on Postcards for Peace.  But we can't let the pressure up.
> 
> Barbara suggests telephoning as the quickest way to get
> our Senators' and Representative's attention -- and time matters now.
> 
>    Stuart
> 
> 
> (P.S. And I want to nag Joe Biden for saying that the Senate had
> no power to restrain the President's conduct of the war.  He needs to
> talk to Sen. Durbin, who last Thursday on All Things Considered noted
> two approaches for doing just that.)
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