by Wendy Barth , WFPI President
Saturday morning bright and early Charlotte Martin and I drove down to Iowa City and picked up three members of the UI Anti-War committee to join us in our journey to Des Moines. Over 30 peace activists from across the state converged on Des Moines Saturday September 30, 2007 at the River View dining room on the campus of AIB Business College to discuss with Senator Harkin some very important issues. The Senator arrived right at 2 o’clock, the starting time for our meeting, and gave a brief introductory remarks. He announced that the Senate had managed to keep all funding for the Iraq war out of the defense appropriations, so that all funding for continuing the conflict in Iraq must be via supplemental spending bills. While this is a small step, it is important because we can now see exactly what we are spending on Iraq, he said.
He talked about the dilemma that he faces, wanting to support the troops without paying for the war. He said he had looked at Jeff Ley’s research from the Voices for Creative Non-Violence, had had the Congressional Research Service check into it, and still felt conflicted about whether to appropriate funding or not.
He said he came to listen, and relinquished the floor.
Kathleen McQuillen of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) assumed the role of master of ceremonies. The Des Moines contingent had prepared remarks on three subjects: Iran, Iraq and restoring the Constitution.
Jeff Weiss of the AFSC spoke on the issue of preventing a war with Iran. His talking points are in the attached document. After he finished, I delivered a copy of Scott Ritter’s latest paper “Iraq Will Have To Wait” . I started to explain to Senator Harkin who Scott Ritter is, and his face lit up in a smile. “I know Scott Ritter,” he said. “I met with him.” So I told him the gist of the paper is that the arguments for attacking Iran are not supported by evidence, just hearsay, and gave him the copy of the paper which I had printed out. He seemed delighted.
The audience discussed Iran for a bit, then we moved to the topic of Iraq. Dr. Maureen McCue of Physicians for Social Responsibility spoke of the human costs of the war in Iraq, about the enormous number of wounded with serious wounds, who will need medical care for the rest of their lives. She also spoke eloquently about the psychological wounds incurred. Senator Harkin took the opportunity to display a chart he had made for the SCHIP debate, showing how many children could be covered by health insurance for the amount of money they are spending for an hour, a day, a week or a month in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More discussion of Iraq included the parents of a soldier who had his stay in Iraq extended. Much discussion about strategies for setting timetables and dealing with threatened vetoes. Charlotte urged Senator Harkin to spend an hour with Mr. Kucinich discussing – no listening – about his support the troops but don’t fund the war dilemma.
John Tuzco, who brought the AFSC flags for our event, gave a very passionate plea for Senator Harkin to be a more vocal and outspoken critic of this war – to get on television talk shows, to write articles for papers, to attend rallies and antiwar events. Senator Harkin explained that he is a busy man, chairing the Agricultural Committee and the Appropriations Committee, and has other projects in the works, and besides you have to be invited to TV talk shows. But he did seem interested in coming back to Des Moines for the rally in October.
Marybeth presented the third topic, congressional oversight and constitutional responsibilities. Several members of the group tried to get Harkin to commit to impeaching GW Bush, to which he gave a well-rehearsed answer: they didn’t want to be hateful and vindictive, just wait 16 months and it will be over. But no, we said, if we don’t straighten this out we will have set a very bad precedent, which would let other future presidents abuse the powers of the office. The discussion turned very dark and heavy, with people expressing their fears for our nation.
I then remembered that I had brought the tee-shirt from WFPI to give to Senator Harkin’s wife Ruth, so I made a presentation, he was delighted to accept the tee-shirt and gave me a hug.
To wrap it up, he said that he got his start in politics as an anti-war candidate, during the Vietnam war, and this brings it back home, reminds him of why he got into politics. He told us he wanted to do what we want him to do, now we have to make him do it.
I went up to him afterwards, and said, “It is not hateful or vindictive to ask a man to obey the law.” At first he took it the wrong way, but then said, “Oh, I see what you mean, when they impeached Clinton that was hateful and vindictive, but … – that’s good. I like that, I’ll use that.”
By 3:45 his staff had managed to get pry him out of the crowd and get him headed toward the airport.
1 Comment
October 12, 2007 at 5:13 am
When I (Charlotte) urged Senator Harkin to spend an hour listening to Mr. Kucinich, I also urged him to EARN the right to do the whining he’s doing about the waste of money on war that could be spent instead on programs like SCHIP. He will only earn the right to complain about this waste of money when he reverses his pattern of signing the checks that send the money not to the children but to the killing.