SERIOUS DEBATE NEEDED ON THE COST OF THE WAR

On Sunday night I joined Mary Beth Sullivan and Karen Wainberg in driving to Bridgton to a meeting of the county Democratic committee. Our Congressman, Tom Allen, was to be a guest speaker. We wanted to go ask him some questions about Iraq. I went first and asked him if he'd support the "Woolsey Resolution" in the House of Representatives that calls on the president to set an exit strategy for the war in Iraq. Our other Congressman in Maine, Mike Michaud, has just agreed to co-sponsor the resolution. Anyway, the congressman said he was not inclined to support it saying that there is no one to replace U.S. forces. I then asked him when and how we'd ever leave, considering we are now building 14 "enduring" bases in Iraq. He said he was convinced once a new government was established in Iraq they would "kick us out." I think he is wrong on this point because the new government in Iraq is a puppet government under our control. The other interesting thing about the Woolsey resolution, is that last week a group of students from Bowdoin College met with Rep. Allen and when they asked him about the Woolsey resolution he told them he did not know about it. I spoke with his staff person in Washington this morning and she told me she had talked with the congressman about the Woolsey resolution two weeks ago and he had decided then he was not going to support it.

During the meeting Sunday night Karen Wainberg asked the second question about him holding a town hall meeting so people could share their feelings about the war. Karen reminded him that he has been holding town hall meetings on the social security question and should do the same for the war. He said he was not sure and would have to talk with his staff. Today when I spoke with his staffer in DC she told me he had brought up the subject this morning in a staff meeting and it looked fairly certain that they would hold one soon. His staffer told me the congressman was saying he was getting a lot of pressure to hold a town hall meeting.

I remind readers what Hillary Clinton said a month or so ago when she returned from Iraq. I saw her on the Sunday morning talk shows saying that the U.S. has been in South Korea since the end of that war, some 50 years ago, and that we are going to be in Iraq for some time to come. This is a key issue because the enormous cost of this war is resulting in the elimination of social progress in the U.S. It is vital to get to the question of how long we will be in Iraq. Many in the Democratic party do not want to talk about this issue. Like Rep. Allen, many Democrats are telling the public that we can stay in Iraq and fund social programs (guns and butter) at the same time. This is a serious error that the peace movement must point out now.