[Peace-discuss] How the AFL-CIO, Dems & Obama stopped the war...

[C. G. Estabrook]

Bob--

Your paragraph below passes beyond wishful thinking, into the realm of fantasy.

The Democrats (& Obama), with the support of the minuscule organized labor 
movement (riven by personal rivalries), effectively neutralized the public's 
opposition (>70% in 2006) to the Iraq war and coopted the explicit anti-war 
movement during the drawn-out presidential campaign. Obama in office has 
continued the Mideast war even more aggressively and violently than Bush, 
particularly in "AfPak."

In Iraq the Bush policy has been maintained -- continued occupation, permanent 
bases, effective control of the government. As John Pilger writes, "Perhaps the 
biggest lie ... is Obama's announcement that the US is leaving Iraq, the country 
it has reduced to a river of blood" (as you documented). The Bush/Obama 
timetable for withdrawal is neither.

The way to a just foreign policy can't be a misrepresentation of what's going on 
at home or abroad.  --CGE


=======Bob Naiman wrote

"...In January 2007, President Sweeney denounced President Bush's proposed 
military escalation in Iraq. In March 2007 the General Executive Council of the 
AFL-CIO called for the end of the U.S. military occupation of Iraq and a 
timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces. The AFL-CIO statement played a 
significant role in aligning Democrats in Congress in favor of a timetable for 
U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. And the insistence by Democrats in Congress - 
especially presidential candidate Barack Obama - in favor of a timetable for 
withdrawal decisively strengthened the hand of the Iraqi government in 
successfully demanding a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq from the Bush 
Administration."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/reform-us-foreign-policy_b_191587.html