I wrote a piece a few weeks ago called the House Leadership Vacuum, and I'm going to expand on it in a future post. The gist of the post was that the House leadership and most of the House Democratic membership is rudderless, insidery, and useless. With some exceptions (like Louise Slaughter, Adam Smith, and Rahm Emanuel), they kowtow to a vapid Nancy Pelosi, and basically act like excessively clever depressed kids at a summer camp for the kumbaya crowd. This includes the progressive caucus, who have 'good' voting records.
Anyway, that's a somewhat provocative statement, and I'm sure I'll get lots of people who don't like what I just said. Fine. Let's just pretend for a moment that I'm right, and that this is true. How do you restore strength and leadership to the caucus? Well, one way is by creating independent power centers that have distinct funding streams.
IAVA PAC is one of them. It's a bipartisan PAC supporting veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are having an event tomorrow in New York, and if you have some time and some dough, you should consider going. IAVA PAC is not just a fundraising vehicle; their 'Follow-the-money' blog describes the cost of corruption in Iraq and how it becomes a meaningful problem for troops over there.
We are spending about five billion dollars a month in Iraq. In a over two years, we have spent the equivalent to half of the 12-year Vietnam War or half of World War I with many fewer men under arms. Over a billion a week is all Rumsfeld asks. And the Congress and American public have willingly voted for this money because, as one general once told me," we need the best for our boys."But there is a mismatch here. While the DOD is pouring buckets of water through the procurement sponge, only a few drops are reaching some of the troops. Troops will tell you that in the Green Zone or in the bigger camps "around the flagpole," where the brass hangs out, there are fancy facilities run by KBR and other contractors but that if you are deployed outside these zones, you will be hurting for vehicle parts, body armor, food and even drinking water. Even around the flagpole, some troops have told us that they are getting what they don't need but not getting what they do need to fight and win.
Various IAVA veterans tell stories about how the billion a week did not trickle down to them during the war and even months after the war. Perry Jefferies, several months after President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier and declared "mission accomplished," was forced to commandeer the rare shower trucks that came to Camp Caldwell so his hungry and desperate troops could drink the water.
Progressives need to develop tighter relationships with the military, and this is one really good way to have it happen. After all, the military believes in service, internationalism, health care, addressing the roots of terrorism (fourth generation warfare) instead of refighting the Cold War, and renewable energy as a mechanism for reducing global instability. All of these things are progressive. Check out the website and learn about IAVA. While I'm not a fan of marshal glory as more valuable than any other type of public service, it certainly proves a commitment to sacrifice, and we need a heck of a lot more of that commitment in government. Anyway, it's quite possible this PAC and those like it could begin to create power centers that help promote strong Democratic leaders who can begin to fix this very broken and very great country.
Ok, now you can go back to disagreeing with my assessment of House Democrats. The House Democrats are great, and all we need to do is win in 2006, build a liberal Fox News, and all will be better because our elected leaders have proven such a capacity to wield power for the progressive side.
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