House ‘debates’ Iraq war funds

What is behind the conflict in Congress over the Iraq war and what can the anti-war movement do to intervene? Now in the House, where the “debate” will take up three full days and evenings of arguments, there will follow a vote Feb. 16 on a short non-binding resolution stating that the House opposes Bush’s escalation or “surge.” Nearly all Democrats and about 20 Republicans are expected to pass the resolution.

Non-binding means that the Democrats, who introduced it, are avoiding the one thing that Congress has the Constitutional power to do: cut funding. They can cut funding for the escalation. They can cut all funding for the war.

Still, with sound bites played on the evening news and the whole thing on CSPAN, the House “debate” has drawn the attention of millions. Those many workers, poor and oppressed people who have relatives dying or being maimed in Iraq are passionately involved. So are the hundreds of millions of working people who see their social benefits disappear as trillions in government funds disappear into the Iraqi quagmire.

Let’s take a cold, hard look at the “debate.”

First, the Bush gang has lost its bet on a quick 2003 victory in Iraq. Instead, the Iraqi resistance, despite the wide difference in armaments and its own difficulties, has stretched the Pentagon’s ground troops to the limit for four years. Retired Lt. Gen. William Odom, no dove, recently told the Senate just how badly the U.S. had lost in Iraq.

Because of this defeat, U.S. ruling circles have been searching for a way out of their Iraq crisis different from Bush’s way. This gave rise to the Iraq Study Group, which Bush has already managed to ignore. It also gives rise to the Democratic Party playing—in a half-hearted way—the role of war opponent.

Second, U.S. voters, especially from working-class and oppressed communities, voted last Nov. 7 to end the war. They voted mostly for Democratic Party candidates, because these candidates presented themselves as opponents of Bush’s Iraq policy. The workers want the war to end, the sooner the better, and the spending on it to stop. Even with the coverage of the premature and diversionary 2008 presidential campaign, it is clear that anti-war rhetoric gets the applause.

Third, there should be no illusion about the Democratic Party leadership. No less than the Republicans, they are loyal defenders of U.S. imperialist interests, that is, the interests of the banks and corporations whose owners rule this country and try to rule the world. Sen. Hillary Clinton makes this Democratic Party position clear every time she defends her early vote for the Iraq war, or refuses to “take off the table” the option of a nuclear strike on Iran. It is clear every time a Democratic representative says the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq so it can better strike at Iran or North Korea.

The result is that a ruling class argument over tactics has opened up in Congress on an issue vital to the working class and oppressed people of this country—along with the rest of the world. The question is how should the anti-war movement intervene in this opening in order to advance the struggle to end the war? For such an intervention to reflect working-class interests it should demand that all war funds be cut and used instead for social benefits. The intervention should not only expose the crimes of Bush and the Republicans but also of the Democrats for going along with the war. Congress should feel the heat of working-class demands at a time when the debate is raging and all eyes are upon them.

Regarding this challenge, we welcome the initiative taken by the Troops Out Now Coalition and others who have called for protests around the country on Feb. 17, calling it “No More $$ for War Day.” In cities all around the country protests will make this point targeting Congress and demanding “money for jobs at a living wage, housing, health care, education, and rebuilding the Gulf Coast.”

In New York, the march will go from Times Square to the offices of Senators Clinton and Charles Schumer, two leading Democrats who try to separate from Bush while not giving one inch on U.S. militarism throughout the world. TONC will carry this position to Washington on and around March 17, when there is an anti-war march on the Pentagon set for the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion.

Such an initiative defends the interests of the workers and oppressed peoples, exposes both big capitalist parties and makes more likely an independent working-class struggle to end the war and occupation.