[Peace-discuss] Can Arlen Specter End the War in Afghanistan?

[Robert Naiman]

Who knew Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter would emerge as one of the
most vocal opponents in the Senate of the President's military
escalation in Afghanistan? But so it is.
[...]
What can one Senator do? Well, one Senator can introduce legislation,
for starters. At this writing, there isn't a single piece of
legislation before the Senate that expresses opposition to continuing
the war indefinitely. This is in marked contrast to the House, where
Representative McGovern's bill requiring the Pentagon to present
Congress with an exit strategy from Afghanistan has more than 100
co-sponsors. That's like having 23 Senators.

But Arlen Specter is in a unique position to do much more than
introduce legislation. He could turn his Pennsylvania Democratic
Senate primary into a referendum on the Afghanistan war, because his
primary opponent, Joe Sestak, supports the war and supports the
escalation:
[..]
If the Pennsylvania Senate primary became a referendum on the
Afghanistan war, that could have national effects, emboldening
Congressional Democrats to oppose the war more forcefully. There is an
important, recent, and relevant precedent: Ned Lamont's primary
against Joe Lieberman in Connecticut in 2006, which Lamont turned into
a referendum on the Iraq war. I can report from direct personal
experience - I was a volunteer for Lamont - that actual Connecticut
primary voters told me on their doorstep that they were voting for
Lamont because it was a referendum on the Iraq war, and they knew the
whole country was watching. And when Lamont defeated Lieberman in the
primary, it helped change the national discussion among Democrats
about Iraq, and establish "out of Iraq" as the Democratic position.
[...]
What if peace activists in Pennsylvania took this up as their cause?
"Vote Specter for Peace," their 30-second TV ad could say. If we're
going to end the war, some Pennsylvania peace activists might need to
engage in some single-issue voting. If you look at how the Israel
lobby or the gun lobby or the anti-abortion lobby have influence, it's
not by their members saying, "Well, so-and-so isn't good on our
issues, but he's good on other issues, so I'm going to vote for him
anyway." They have influence by rewarding their friends and punishing
their enemies. As they say in the labor movement, the women's
movement, and the civil rights movement: "We have no permanent
friends, and no permanent enemies. We only have permanent issues."
Right now, Arlen Specter is a friend of the peace movement, because
he's supporting the peace movement's permanent issue: opposing the
Afghanistan war. Let's reward our friend Arlen Specter - and use his
candidacy as a hammer to end the war.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/can-arlen-specter-end-the_b_388604.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/11/10913/420

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/428

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