The Democrat’s Approach to Ending the War
Tikkun, CA The split among progressives as we assess the Democrats’ strategy Michael Lerner
Progressives have been dramatically divided on how to assess the wisdom of what the Democrats are doing to challenge Bush on the war in Iraq. Spiritual progressives find elements in both positions that we can respect.
Most spiritual progressives share a fundamental agreement about the evil of this war, a position that Tikkun has taken from the moment that it was first publicly discussed in 2002. We stand behind that position: the war is morally wrong. It has led to a decrease in global solidarity, an increase in violence and in validating violence as the way to handle disputes (not only between states, but also between individuals or groups without state power), a decrease in respect for law and legal institutions, and a despair about ever being able to create a rational order in the world.
We at Tikkun have argued that the war should be stopped and no further funding should be made available. We urge progressive forces in this country to call upon our elected representatives to publicly repent on behalf of the United States for having started this war, support the replacement of our own troops with an international force capable of conducting an honest plebiscite to determine whether Iraq should continue as one country or should be broken up in accordance with its major ethnic/religious splits, and to fund a Global Marshall Plan that not only fully rebuilds Iraq but also provides funding and changes global trade agreements. These agreements would focus on ending global poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health care, and on repairing the global environment. If you agree with that perspective, we hope you’ll sign our ad.
What we, as an editorial board, do not agree upon is what to think about the validity of the strategy developed by Democratic Congressional leaders that a) seeks to end the war by funding it and placing restrictions on the president that call for certain “benchmarks” to be met, and b) calls for an end to major troop presence by the end of the summer of 2008, but that simultaneously provides more than $100 billion to fund the war for another year and a half. [more]