Thursday, June 15, 2006
Laying their cards on the table
Today the 100 members of the United States Sentate got to vote on whether or not they wanted to continue with the war in Iraq indefinitely or establish a timeframe, the December of 2006, for the end of U.S. involvement there. In spite of the fact that most Americans now view the war as a mistake the U.S. Senate voted in a very lopsided manner to continue the war.
The vote was actually on motion to table the amendment to require and end to the U.S. war in Iraq - so in voting "Yea" they were voting to table the amendment and continue with the war. You can think of it as "Yea" to continue with the war, and "Nay" to end the war. Here is the very sad outcome of this vote, by Senator:
In case you didn't actually count the vote was 93 to continue with the war indefinitely versus 6 voting to set a deadline. What made this vote even sadder for me, if no less predictable, is that it is so remaniscent of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorizing the Vietnam War which passed with the only slightly more lopsided margin of 98 to 2. The U.S. Senate supposedly takes great pride in its traditions. Apparently voting en masse to throw away untold numbers of lives in futile, pointless, and morally unjustifiable wars is one of those traditions.
There is no small irony in this vote coming on the same day that U.S. deaths in Iraq reached the 2,500 mark with those wounded over 18,000. One wonders how different a similar vote will be once the death toll reaches 5,000 or 10,000. I suspect not much. And it's pointless to even bring up how many Iraqis have died in this debacle. If the largely working class and poor Americans who are dying in this war count for little in the estimation of the esteemed Senators, it can be safely assumed the Iraqis themselves count for nothing.
It is worth noting though how some of the Senators who like to wear the label "liberal" on their shirt sleaves voted - Clinton "yea", Schumer "yea", Dodd "yea", Leahy "yea", Mikulski "yea", Feinstein "yea", Obama "yea". Recently its been fashionable for some to critcize Senator Lieberman (who of course voted "yea" too) as a sellout, an apoligist for the war, and an enabler for Bush. Of course, he is all of those things. But look at the votes - the guy has lots of company.
Now some will try to come up with the excuse of these votes were just for political cover - they couldn't go on record opposing the war lest they be vulnerable to defeat in the next electon. Bullshit. There isn't a snowballs chance in hell people like Clinton, Schumer, Dodd, or Leahy would lose their next election no matter how they voted on this.
No, this wan't a vote based on political expediency. They voted their convictions. They support the war, full stop. In one sense there is nothing wrong with that, that's what they are there to do. What really needs to be noted here is that for those who oppose the war step number one is stop pretending the people that are in the U.S. congress now will somehow end this war. They won't. That is the first thing that those of us opposed to the war have to internalize. If you don't see that after today you are willfully blind.
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The vote was actually on motion to table the amendment to require and end to the U.S. war in Iraq - so in voting "Yea" they were voting to table the amendment and continue with the war. You can think of it as "Yea" to continue with the war, and "Nay" to end the war. Here is the very sad outcome of this vote, by Senator:
| Akaka (D-HI), Yea Alexander (R-TN), Yea Allard (R-CO), Yea Allen (R-VA), Yea Baucus (D-MT), Yea Bayh (D-IN), Yea Bennett (R-UT), Yea Biden (D-DE), Yea Bingaman (D-NM), Yea Bond (R-MO), Yea Boxer (D-CA), Nay Brownback (R-KS), Yea Bunning (R-KY), Yea Burns (R-MT), Yea Burr (R-NC), Yea Byrd (D-WV), Nay Cantwell (D-WA), Yea Carper (D-DE), Yea Chafee (R-RI), Yea Chambliss (R-GA), Yea Clinton (D-NY), Yea Coburn (R-OK), Yea Cochran (R-MS), Yea Coleman (R-MN), Yea Collins (R-ME), Yea Conrad (D-ND), Yea Cornyn (R-TX), Yea Craig (R-ID), Yea Crapo (R-ID), Yea Dayton (D-MN), Yea DeMint (R-SC), Yea DeWine (R-OH), Yea Dodd (D-CT), Yea Dole (R-NC), Yea | Domenici (R-NM), Yea Dorgan (D-ND), Yea Durbin (D-IL), Yea Ensign (R-NV), Yea Enzi (R-WY), Yea Feingold (D-WI), Nay Feinstein (D-CA), Yea Frist (R-TN), Yea Graham (R-SC), Yea Grassley (R-IA), Yea Gregg (R-NH), Yea Hagel (R-NE), Yea Harkin (D-IA), Nay Hatch (R-UT), Yea Hutchison (R-TX), Yea Inhofe (R-OK), Yea Inouye (D-HI), Yea Isakson (R-GA), Yea Jeffords (I-VT), Yea Johnson (D-SD), Yea Kennedy (D-MA), Nay Kerry (D-MA), Nay Kohl (D-WI), Yea Kyl (R-AZ), Yea Landrieu (D-LA), Yea Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea Leahy (D-VT), Yea Levin (D-MI), Yea Lieberman (D-CT), Yea Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Lott (R-MS), Yea Lugar (R-IN), Yea Martinez (R-FL), Yea McCain (R-AZ), Yea | McConnell (R-KY), Yea Menendez (D-NJ), Yea Mikulski (D-MD), Yea Murkowski (R-AK), Yea Murray (D-WA), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Yea Nelson (D-NE), Yea Obama (D-IL), Yea Pryor (D-AR), Yea Reed (D-RI), Yea Reid (D-NV), Yea Roberts (R-KS), Yea Rockefeller (D-WV), Not Voting Salazar (D-CO), Yea Santorum (R-PA), Yea Sarbanes (D-MD), Yea Schumer (D-NY), Yea Sessions (R-AL), Yea Shelby (R-AL), Yea Smith (R-OR), Yea Snowe (R-ME), Yea Specter (R-PA), Yea Stabenow (D-MI), Yea Stevens (R-AK), Yea Sununu (R-NH), Yea Talent (R-MO), Yea Thomas (R-WY), Yea Thune (R-SD), Yea Vitter (R-LA), Yea Voinovich (R-OH), Yea Warner (R-VA), Yea Wyden (D-OR), Yea |
In case you didn't actually count the vote was 93 to continue with the war indefinitely versus 6 voting to set a deadline. What made this vote even sadder for me, if no less predictable, is that it is so remaniscent of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorizing the Vietnam War which passed with the only slightly more lopsided margin of 98 to 2. The U.S. Senate supposedly takes great pride in its traditions. Apparently voting en masse to throw away untold numbers of lives in futile, pointless, and morally unjustifiable wars is one of those traditions.
There is no small irony in this vote coming on the same day that U.S. deaths in Iraq reached the 2,500 mark with those wounded over 18,000. One wonders how different a similar vote will be once the death toll reaches 5,000 or 10,000. I suspect not much. And it's pointless to even bring up how many Iraqis have died in this debacle. If the largely working class and poor Americans who are dying in this war count for little in the estimation of the esteemed Senators, it can be safely assumed the Iraqis themselves count for nothing.
It is worth noting though how some of the Senators who like to wear the label "liberal" on their shirt sleaves voted - Clinton "yea", Schumer "yea", Dodd "yea", Leahy "yea", Mikulski "yea", Feinstein "yea", Obama "yea". Recently its been fashionable for some to critcize Senator Lieberman (who of course voted "yea" too) as a sellout, an apoligist for the war, and an enabler for Bush. Of course, he is all of those things. But look at the votes - the guy has lots of company.
Now some will try to come up with the excuse of these votes were just for political cover - they couldn't go on record opposing the war lest they be vulnerable to defeat in the next electon. Bullshit. There isn't a snowballs chance in hell people like Clinton, Schumer, Dodd, or Leahy would lose their next election no matter how they voted on this.
No, this wan't a vote based on political expediency. They voted their convictions. They support the war, full stop. In one sense there is nothing wrong with that, that's what they are there to do. What really needs to be noted here is that for those who oppose the war step number one is stop pretending the people that are in the U.S. congress now will somehow end this war. They won't. That is the first thing that those of us opposed to the war have to internalize. If you don't see that after today you are willfully blind.
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