By Ken Theisen
They’re at it again. Democratic leaders
of the House are working to create another war funding bill to keep
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan going for at least six months into
the next president’s term of office. This is the party that
is going to end the war and reverse the excesses of the Bush regime?
In your dreams!
But do not worry, as they vote to continue
the Bush regime’s wars we will hear lots of rhetoric that they are
really against the war in Iraq, but they are only funding it because
they do not have the votes to stop it. Plus, they have to show that
they support the troops, especially in an election year. How many
years has this tune been playing? What about Congress” power
of the purse? Don’t spending bills have to be passed by the
House? If Congress does not fund the wars, are the Bush regime
henchmen going to ask their supporters to pay for it with private donations?
The Bush regime has asked Congress for
$108 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Democrats who
are drafting the funding legislation want to include a “bridge fund”
of an additional $70 billion to give a new president “breathing room”
before he or she will have to request more money for the wars.
That is correct – they want to give the Bush regime $70 billion more
than requested. Who says the Democrats are not just another imperialist
party?
As a sweetener Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker
of the House, is putting forth a proposal to extend unemployment benefits
for 13 weeks for those whose benefits have expired. Of course
if hundreds of billions of dollars were not needlessly wasted on war,
maybe we could have job programs instead of unemployed people that needed
more benefits.
Last week Nancy Pelosi was confronted
on her failure to end the war on CNN’s Larry King. King stated,
“Your party became the majority in the House primarily pledging
to end the war. That didn’t happen.” With no sense of irony Pelosi
answered, “No. It didn’t happen because we had hoped that the president
would listen to the will of the people and at least be willing to compromise
on … how the war is conducted and some timetable for redeployment
of our troops.” Well the president is not the only one who is deaf
Nancy. Democrat leaders have consistently failed to stop funding the
war since the November 2006 election.
But they have not failed to stop the
war because they have no ears to hear or no backbone. The war
continues because both the Republicans and the Democrats support the
goal of the Bush regime – the continuing domination of the Middle
East in order to maintain U.S. hegemony in the world. The parties
may disagree over the tactics employed to accomplish the goal, but they
both are imperialist parties and when the wishes of the people do not
coincide with the wishes of the imperialists in control of the government
it is easy for the Democrats to become deaf.
In the last week, Hillary Clinton has
shown this. In one week she has threatened Iran with nuclear obliteration
and this weekend she said Afghanistan needs to get “as much, if not
more attention,” than Iraq. Obama in the past has threatened
to invade Pakistan and to use missiles against Iran. Both Obama
and Clinton have put forth troop “withdrawal proposals” that would
allow tens of thousands of troops to remain in Iraq for years.
Obama wants to increase the size of the U.S. war machine by increasing
troop numbers. Neither candidate will pledge to have troops out
by January 2013.
So it should come as no surprise that
the Democratic-led congress will send billions more down the war drain.
How many more billions will be spent and how many more Iraqis, Afghans,
Pakistanis, and maybe Iranians will have to do die before we stop all
these war criminals on both sides of the aisle? When will people realize
that trying to achieve a Democratic victory in November will mean as
much as the last Democratic victory in 2006? Cast away illusions and
join us to drive the Bush regime from power. That will be a real
victory!
Ken
Theisen is a veteran activist of movements opposing U.S. imperialism,
its wars and domination of countries throughout the world, and an advocate
against domestic violence in the San Francisco Bay Area.