DemocracyRising.US poses an “exit strategy” that joins others in calling for the creation of an internationalised peace keeping force the make-up of which would be decided upon by the Arab League and Organization of the Islamic Conference. Are Iraqis incapable of deciding whose help they’d require?
Ralph Nader in “It’s Time to Make the Iraq War Personal” suggests churches begin regularly tolling their bells for occupation casualties (appears to be a go wherever the idea may have originated) and it might grow opposition numbers.
But it’s Alexander Cockburn who poses a next move for the antiwar, or as Cindy Sheehan prefers “peace movement” group Gold Star Families for Peace, that would knock the War Party’s last leg out from under it:
Gold Star moms like Cindy Sheehan could be leading sit-ins at military recruitment offices across the country and in the home district congressional offices of Democrats and Republicans. How about Cindy Sheehan moving Camp Casey from Crawford to Hillary Clinton’s offices in Washington or New York. Only this time the demand would not be for a meeting but for a reversal of HRC’s pro war position which has her putting up a bill to increase US forces overall by 90,000. One of the greatest achievements of the antiwar movement in Viertnam era was to make it untenable for a Democrat, LBJ, to run again for the presidency, or for Hubert Humphrey to run and win on a prowar platform. Question, would the MoveOn operation take the slightest interest in any vigils outside HRC’s offices, or those of any other prominent Democrat? Of course not.
Cindy Sheehan deserves an answer from Bush regarding the noble cause and should continue demanding one. Gold Star Families could rise to phenomenal status by becoming the only antiwar/peace organisation with mainstream appeal to possess the moral clarity and intestinal fortitude required to turn up the volume and force a response from the DLC and its apologists. It’s the elephant in the room and the bell that must be rung.