[Peace-discuss] 4000 U.S. Deaths Should Spark Congressional Debate on Iraq

[Morton K. Brussel]

On Mar 24, 2008, at 6:49 PM, Robert Naiman wrote:

> I totally agree with your suggestion. As I wrote, there are multiple
> causes for the fall-off in press coverage. I wanted to focus on one of
> them, which is that after Congress abandoned efforts to impose a
> timetable for withdrawal, news media took this as a cue that the issue
> was less important. If that is true, then it suggests that the
> Congressional debate was useful, by helping keep the issue in the news
> media, even though it didn't result in effective action to end the
> war. That undermines the argument that there is no point in Congress
> addressing the issue if it can't enforce effective action.

On the other hand, to raise hopes (in Congress) and then to dash them  
has been doubly discouraging, a turn-off for many. The issue about  
funding the wars is/has been crucial. The Democrats, had they been  
truly sincere and committed in antiwar efforts, could always have  
refused to fund the war/military appropriations that Bush proposed.   
Their leaders refused to even consider such an option.


>
> On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Morton K. Brussel  
> <brussel at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>>  I especially would emphasize the statement in your article:
>>
>>
>> Surely the fact that just over a quarter of American adults could  
>> say about
>> how many Americans had been killed in Iraq represents an  
>> indictment of our
>> media and the actions of our political leaders.
>>
>>  But I would suggest  that the media are complicit in the basic  
>> aims of the
>> Bush administration: Control of the ME and West Asia and its
>> resources---"our national interests", and that is a reason for  
>> their playing
>> down about what's occurring in our occupation of Iraq and  
>> Afghanistan as
>> well as probable plans for an attack on Iran.
>>
>> --mkb
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 24, 2008, at 11:40 AM, Robert Naiman wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> In which I argue that Congress should be debating the Iraq war,  
>> even if
>> effective action to end the war is beyond their immediate grasp.
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/four-thousand-us- 
>> deaths_b_93083.html
>>
>> http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/24/122711/414
>>
>>
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