[Peace-discuss] Bacevich Brown Bag Program

[Robert Naiman]

No, I do not think, and I am pretty confident that I did not say, that it is
"only -- or even primarily -- the Repubs who are perpetuating endless war."

What I do think, and have written and said, is that we have a specific and
important problem with respect to the Republican party. One way of posing
the problem is this: if you compare public opinion and Congressional voting,
there is a gap on the Democratic side, but there is a huge chasm on the
Republican side. This is a major obstacle to getting a majority in Congress
to turn decisively against the wars.

This gap has two key, related, causes:

1. The national Republican party has essentially adopted support of the
wars, etc. as a party policy, on which party discipline is enforced. We saw
this in the Michael Steele affair, among many other examples.

2. The "peace movement" nationally has little "field" in the districts
represented by Republicans in Congress. Most of the country's active peace
people live in major metropolitan areas represented by
center-liberal-to-progressive Democrats in Congress. You can see this by
looking at anti-war initiatives in Congress, looking to see who co-sponsored
them, and looking to see what districts they represent.

That is a big part of why I think Bacevich is important. We need folks in
Republican districts to turn against the wars and get active.

On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Bob,
> Re one of yr last statements: Do you really think it's only -- or even
> primarily -- the Repubs who are perpetuating endless war?
> It's a no-brainer that this mindset is wrong in all ways... and I expected
> Bacevich to tell us (when he mentioned "the powers") just WHY this continues
> to be so entrenched, WHO all are responsible, and WHO all are benefiting...
> but he didn't get a chance to say and nobody asked.  I'm still wondering
> about this, but I'm guessing the answer is, A whole lotta rich and powerful
> folks who don't stand to lose a thing... and don't care a bit about those
> who do... and their puppets who are convinced there's a patriotic
> justification.
>
> Good show, thanks for arranging it.
>  --Jenifer
>
>
>
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-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

Urge Congress to Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from
Afghanistan
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern
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