Who "Owns" the Iraq War?

The following message was sent by local peace activist Joy First on April 11. The weekly anti-war vigil continues on Wednesday April 18. UW students will be leading the vigil, which will start with a rally at UW Library Mall at 1 pm, followed by a march to Senator Kohl's office at 2 pm (Kohl's office is at 14 West Mifflin Street, on Capitol Square).

Check our events page for other local activities, including the next meeting of Madison Women for Peace: Monday April 16 at 6:30 pm at the Social Justice Center (corner of Williamson and Few Streets).

Today citizens in Madison, WI met with our Senators and Representative to present them with the "certificate of ownership" that they must accept after voting to give Bush $100 billion more for the war in Iraq. Since they voted to pay for the war, they now own the war, and are responsible for the deaths of well over 200 US soldiers and countless Iraqis who have died since the Democrats have taken control of Congress.

Three of us first met with Senator Russ Feingold's staff in Middleton, WI. this afternoon, in spite of heavy snowfall throughout the day. Emily Plagman, Feingold's aide on Iraq, joined us by phone from Washington. We told his staff that we appreciated all that Feingold is doing and that he is a giant among the Senators. At the same time, we were disappointed in his vote for the supplemental funding, and we presented him with the "certificate of ownership" which has a 30-day return policy. He can return it by voting against the funding when it comes before the Senate again. We also discussed his current legislation that he introduced to end military involvement in Iraq. Our concern with this legislation is that the three categories of soldiers that can exempted from the withdrawal could potentially include all US soldiers in Iraq. Under this bill, Bush could continue the war as it is currently being fought. Emily said that she thought the exemptions were very narrow (which I strongly disagree with). She also said that putting the exemptions in the bill was part of the compromise Feingold made with Harry Reid in order to get the bill introduced. This sounds like blackmail to me. I asked if Feingold would consider a filibuster or even the threat of a filibuster of the supplemental funding if the senate decides to strip all the restrictions out of the bill. His staff will pass on to Senator Feingold that we would support him in a filibuster. Steve Burns ended our discussion by saying simply and clearly that the surest way to end the war would be to stop paying for it, and that is what we are asking Senator Feingold to do.

We drove across town to Senator Kohl's office in downtown Madison meeting about 12 others who have been joining us regularly for our weekly vigil at Senator Kohl's office since February 5. It was a good turnout for a very snowy day. We had a short visit with Senator Kohl's staff today, presenting them with the "certificate of ownership. We asked his staff if he was supporting Senator Feingold's bill to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. They did not know, but would find out. We reminded them that we are here for the same reason we have been here for the last several weeks. We want Senator Kohl to vote no on funding for the war in Iraq.

We walked across the Capitol Square to Representative Tammy Baldwin's office and met with a member of her staff. Again, we presented Kurt with the "certificate of ownership". Tammy Baldwin has been a great ally. She is in the Out of Iraq Caucus. She has consistently voted against funding for the war. BUT, she voted yes a few weeks ago. We told him how disappointed we were, and that we would be counting on her to do the right thing. He said that she had sent out a statement explaining her vote. Basically, she said that she felt she had two choices, either vote for the bill that came before the house, or the leadership would strip out all the restrictions and they would be voting on a bill to give Bush $100 billion with no restrictions. I think it is disgusting that we have a Democratic leadership now that uses bribes, threats, and blackmail to get their way.

At the end of the day, I don't know how much of an impact we really had, but we keep plugging away, doing what we can, and speaking our truth. It is what we have to do. We cannot sit quietly, hopefully waiting for our Congress to do the right thing and end the war. Our voices will be heard.