One quick glance at any recent opinion poll, and you will clearly see that Americans want the war to end, and they want it to end now. There is no doubt, that in the coming election this will be a major issue folks will be voting on. You have to be living under a rock to not hear comments along the lines of, “well as soon as the Democrats are in office….” However, Chris Hedge, calls this statement into serious question. Saying:
“Those of us who oppose the war, who believe that all U.S. troops should be withdrawn and the network of permanent bases in Iraq dismantled, have only two options in the coming presidential elections—Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney. A vote for any of the Republican and Democratic candidates is a vote to perpetuate the occupation of Iraq and a lengthy and futile war of attrition with the Iraqi insurgency. You can sign on for the suicidal hundred-year war with John McCain or for the nebulous open-ended war-lite with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, or back those who reject the war. If you vote Democrat or Republican in the coming election be honest with yourself—you have voted to allow the U.S. government to continue, in some form, the campaign that needlessly kills ever more Americans and Iraqis in a conflict that has become the worst foreign policy disaster in U.S. history and a crime under international law.
‘When will the American people actually vote to give to the world more than bombs and missiles, sweatshops, dubious science, frankenfood, poverty and misery?’ Cynthia McKinney, the presidential candidate in the Green Party primaries, told me. ‘Not only do we need an immediate, orderly withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, we need an end to the militarism that has placed U.S. troops on the soil of over 100 countries. A true peace agenda means a complete redefinition of security. I remain convinced that if people in Haiti, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua can vote a peace and justice agenda into power, then so too can we.’”
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I have some problems with this post. Its practically telling its readers not to vote at all. That would solve absolutely nothing, and voting for a third party candidate time and time again takes vital votes away from Democratic candidates, who are far from perfect but have clearly stated that they support a withdrawal from Iraq much more so than John McCain does. If Ralph Nader wouldn’t have ran in 2000 Al Gore would have won the presidency with the votes lost to Nader. Sure we want our government to actually do things which this world and its people need, but in leu of not having a perfect government we must deal with the options presented to us. At this stage voting for a Democratic candidate is the best option we have.
I was with you all the way until your last sentence. If your proposal is a model of what’s going on in my former home of Venezuela (where a dictator that has removed freedoms & paid the disenfranchised to act as supporters while he robs the people of their wealth & makes allegiances with armed rebel groups in neighboring countries) then I’m very much against you. THAT IS NOT what the US needs nor do Venezuela or any people on our planet.