Comments on MoveOn's Poll on the Supplemental
MoveOn Poll Misleads Congress and Misrepresents Its Membership

From Distinguished Author, Historian and Activist, Howard Zinn:

I'm disappointed in Move On. We are not politicians, we are citizens.

Let the politicians advocate half-way measures if they choose, but only after they have felt the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is winnable in a shameful timorous Congress. Timetables for withdrawal are not only morally reprehensible in the case of a brutal occupation (would you give a thug who invaded your house, smashed things up, and terrorized your children a timetable for withdrawal?) but logically nonsensical. If our troops are preventing civil war, helping people, controlling violence, then why withdraw at all? If they are in fact doing the opposite -- provoking civil war, hurting people, perpetuating violence -- they should withdraw as quickly as ships and planes can carry them home. If Congress thinks it must compromise, let it. But we should not encourage that. We should speak our minds fully, boldly and say what is right , whatever they decide to do..

- Howard Zinn

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I've been exhausted working 13hrs days, but I actually bothered to read up on the Proposal and MoveOn's position really shocked me! I could just as easily have selected "Support the Plan" but of course I selected "Oppose the Plan." I couldn't believe my eyes.

I just hope that other people have noticed as well,
- Anonymous

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Thanks so much for getting back to me.  I thought I was a MoveOn Member.  Maybe I'm not. 

- Rozanne

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It is about time MoveOn did something other than elect Democrats and hold meetings and "do lunch", and to accept Bush's benchmark plans many Dems are now supporting. They need to be WITH the rest of the Peace Movement, and I for one, and very glad to see someone finally coming out in a BIG way to tell them to get their butts in GEAR and actually DO SOMETHING that really helps us all in the Peace Movement! Their poll was disgraceful to our movement, did not explain the issues, and unfortunately their sheer numbers get attention (and their MONEY!). This supplemental must NOT pass!
 
In Peace and Solidarity,
- Anonymous


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The subtle seduction of political power is that it invites us to abandon values, urges us to water down our convictions, and obfuscates our rational processes so that in the end we bend to the political status quo to maintain our illusion of power.  We had no power coming into the debate over Iraq.  We wanted our children out of there.  We wanted to stop building our "Ugly American" image.  We wanted to reinstate our status as a law respecting partner among the nations of the world.  Those were the issues that brought MoveOn together.  We had no power base but we did have principal on our side.  That proved to be powerful, and other peace movements joined their voices to ours.  Our current message to our government, and to our congressional leadership shows just how deeply our values have been plunged into the muck called "politics as usual."  Compromise may be necessary among like minded folk.  It is obscene when we begin to barter heads for "eventual" peace.  That is what we are doing in urging passage of any bill to further bankroll our war effort.  Push harder NOW to end our involvement NOW and tell anyone who accuses us of not caring about the safety of our troops that it was Governmental leadership's stupidity and greed that put our troops in harm's way with lies and inadequate equipment, and it is their pride that prolongs this bloodbath by holding our troops hostage with their debate.  

If MoveOn wants to broaden its grasp of the political high ground, PUSH for Impeachment.  It turns out that Halburton, the same American company that earned so much doing so little in Iraq, has a subsidiary whose blocking efforts prevented the Army from making its own repairs at Walter Reed since the company as sole bidder quoted prices the Army thought "too high."  Now we all know the Veep-creep's connection.  Has anyone looked into the ownership history of the company?  This one company has profited from the war on terror ("the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself"), from the fiasco in New Orleans, and sits at the heart of the problems with repairing the one hospital that veterans counted on for help in wartime.  Impeach: Bush and the Veep. 

I marched with you in the first march in DC.  I have been marching with movements that truly stood for something since the 60's.  It is not about political power.  It is about whipping that power into line.  When you align yourself with the political power structure, and begin to chop your own "planks" into smaller pieces--make no mistake about who became co-opted.  If MoveOn continues its present course, please remove me from your mailing list.  Your abnegation of the moral high ground is giving me PTSD flashbacks about the Peace Movement during VietNam. 

Peace! 

- Jim Recktenwald

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SIGN THE VOTERS' PLEDGE!