[Peace-discuss] Voting to fund the war

[C. G. Estabrook]

"Peace groups spent a year 'strategically' opposing an escalation rather than 
the wars themselves ... [Of the] congress members who have committed to voting 
No on war funding ... 7 betrayed their word and hoped nobody would notice. They 
were: Massa, Conyers, Capuano, Waters, Jones, Grijalva, and McGovern."

	December 17 2009
	Look Who Just Funded the Escalation
	By David Swanson
	AfterDowningStreet.org

The U.S. House of Representatives approved on Wednesday another $130 billion for 
the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and (it goes without saying) Pakistan, money that 
will be used to continue the wars and to escalate the war in Afghanistan. In the 
spring, they will try to pass another $30 billion or more, labeled as funding 
for the escalation, but 4 out of 5 spineless warmongering congress members will 
tell their constituents at that point that they can't vote against something 
that has already happened.

That didn't stop them on Wednesday from telling their constituents that this 
$130 billion was not for the escalation. And, of course, peace groups had spent 
a year "strategically" opposing an escalation rather than the wars themselves, 
making it impossible to insist that congress members vote NO regardless of which 
dollars were for escalating.

At http://defundwar.org is a chart showing how members of congress voted, as 
well as how they voted on the same funding back in June, and which of them have 
cosponsored useful bills or publicly committed to voting no on war funding. On 
Wednesday 23 Democrats and 11 Republicans voted No on the war money, in 
combination with the larger military budget. That ought to at least break the 
bipartisan taboo on voting No. It ought to be safe now to vote No without 
enduring accusations of treason against the Vaterland. Here are the 34 (out of 
435) who voted against funding wars and occupations opposed by the majority of 
Americans, Iraqis, Afghans, and the rule of law:

Baldwin, Bishop (UT), Campbell, Chaffetz, Clarke, Costello, Duncan, Ehlers, 
Ellison, Filner, Flake, Gohmert, Grayson, Johnson (IL), Kagen, Kucinich, Lee 
(CA), Lewis (GA), Lofgren, Lummis, McDermott, Nadler (NY), Paul, Payne, Polis 
(CO), Quigley, Serrano, Shimkus, Stark, Towns, Velázquez, Welch, Woolsey, Wu.

Back in June, all Republicans voted No because of unrelated measures packaged in 
the same vote, but at least some of the 11 who voted No this week probably voted 
No for the right reasons that time as well. Among the Democrats, 32 voted No in 
June compared to 23 this time. Of those 32, there are 19 who voted No in June 
but not this week, including some purported leaders of peace efforts in the House:

McGovern, Grijalva, Waters, Capuano, Conyers, Massa, Edwards, Sherman, Tsongas, 
Tierney, Watson, Speier, Shea-Porter, Pingree, Michaud, Kaptur, Honda, Farr, 
Doggett.

These 19 were among the 395 congress members who just voted to fund the wars and 
the escalation, with the exception of Speier who was among 5 congress members 
who did not vote one way or the other.

At http://defundwar.org we have listed 12 congress members who have committed to 
voting No on war funding, and 1 who has committed to voting No on escalation 
funding. Of those 13 congress members, 6 kept their word and voted No on 
Wednesday, but 7 (including the one committed to voting No only on escalation 
funding) betrayed their word and hoped nobody would notice. They were: Massa, 
Conyers, Capuano, Waters, Jones, Grijalva, and McGovern.

Of these 7, all but Waters and McGovern signed on this week to a bill to be 
introduced by Congressman Kucinich in January that would end the wars. But a 
bill ending a war has to be passed by the Senate and signed by a president. It 
should be a tool for mobilizing support in the House to vote No on the war 
funding, not an excuse to vote Yes. These congress members committed to voting 
No within days of voting yes.

Here's a video of Massa demanding an end to the wars he just funded: 
http://bit.ly/74D1NX

Here's Capuano's campaign ad from his recently failed senate run, in which 
Capuano says that without the right reasons, which he has made clear do not 
exist in this case, he "will never vote to send more of our sons and daughters 
to war, never" http://tr.im/Gr1G

Here is video of Waters saying she will vote against war funding: 
http://bit.ly/5u9FvQ

Here is video of Grijalva saying the same, and doing so as co-chair of the 
so-called progressive caucus: http://bit.ly/6p035s

Beside each congress member's name at http://defundwar.org is their phone 
number. It might be worth taking a couple of minutes to let them know how 
important it is that they keep their word in the future.

There will almost certainly be a war funding vote in the spring. We need solid 
commitments, in writing, and on video, to vote No on this and all future funding.

Source: AfterDowningStreet.org