[Peace-discuss] Demonstration Outside REP. Timothy Johnson's Office - Ongoing!
Carl G. Estabrook
galliher at illinois.edu
Thu Nov 10 18:37:30 CST 2011
Local representatives of Iraq Veterans Against the War note that there
are three points of unity in their mission statement:
1. Immediate withdrawal of occupying troops from Iraq and Afghanistan;
2. Reparations for human and structural damage in Iraq and
Afghanistan; and
3. Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and
other supports for returning servicemen and women.
AWARE of course has heartily supported all three points for the full
ten years of its existence and continues to do so.
Unfortunately, IVAW in C-U has been misled by a well-funded, right-
wing, pro-war group that purports to be supporting veterans ("Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America"*) into attacking local Congressional
representative Tim Johnson, one of the few members of the US House of
Representatives (and one of the very few Republican members) who votes
consistently for "immediate withdrawal of occupying troops from Iraq
and Afghanistan." (Johnson has even joined other House members
including Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rep. Ron Paul in a suit against
President Obama's violation of the War Powers Act in the attack on
Libya.) IAVA attacks anti-war Congress members regardless of party,
and IVAW inadvertently violates its own principles in following them.
The IAVA says that Johnson has voted against veterans benefits, but
what he's actually done is to vote against war-funding bills to which
the House leadership, Republican and Democrat, has attached benefits
for veterans. As Johnson has said clearly, he supports "full benefits,
adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other supports for
returning servicemen and women" - when he can do so without voting for
more money for killing people in the Mideast and Africa.
I certainly have differences with Rep. Johnson - in fact I ran against
him for Congress as a Green party candidate in 2002 - but we should
not be misled into ignoring his consistent votes against the US war
for oil in the Mideast and Africa. --CGE
__________________
*IAVA, as opposed to IVAW, is the pro-war group whose "veterans report
card" is being used to attack anti-war Congressmen. Its board of
directors includes several Wall Street investment bankers and the
president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Les Gelb, a
long-time Pentagon and State Department apparatchik who, during the
2011 Egyptian protests against President Hosni Mubarak, was called by
Salon.com "the Egyptian dictator's freelance spokesman in America." My
guess is that the local IVAW got the information about IAVA's "report
card" from local Democrats associated with Democrat David Gill's
campaign for Tim Johnson's Congressional seat. David Gill has used
this same misleading attack against Rep. Johnson, and Gill continues
to avoid undue candor about his position (or Johnson's) on the ongoing
Mideast/African war.
On Nov 10, 2011, at 5:29 PM, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> Fyi -- sorry for the short notice...
>
> --- On Thu, 11/10/11, David Noreen <davidnoreen at ymail.com> wrote:
>
>
> http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119036184866291#!/event.php?
> eid=172322659524787Iraq Veterans Against The War: Day of Action
> Share · Public Event
>
>
> Time
> Thursday, November 10 · 5:30pm - 8:30pm
> Location
> Outside REP. Timothy Johnson's office
> 2004 Fox Drive
> Champaign, Illinois
> Created By
> Melanie Sivley
> More Info
> Join us on the Eve of Veteran's Day in protest of REP. Timothy
> Johnson's Anti-Veteran Voting Record.
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
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