Norman Solomon: A Lonely Stand Against War (U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee)

[marmar]

from TomPaine.com:


A Lonely Stand Against War
Norman Solomon, TomPaine.com
August 07, 2007


Norman Solomon is a syndicated columnist. The documentary film "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death ," is based on Solomon's book of the same title.


The problem with letting history judge is that so many officials get away with murder in the meantime -- while precious few choose to face protracted vilification for pursuing truth and peace.

A grand total of two people in the entire Congress were able to resist a blood-drenched blank check for the Vietnam War. Standing alone on Aug. 7, 1964, senators Ernest Gruening and Wayne Morse voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

Forty-three years later, we don’t need to go back decades to find a lopsided instance of a lone voice on Capitol Hill standing against war hysteria and the expediency of violent fear. Days after 9/11, at the launch of the so-called “war on terrorism,” just one lawmaker—out of 535—cast a vote against the gathering madness.

“However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint,” she said on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The date was Sept. 14, 2001.

She went on: “Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, 'Let’s step back for a moment, let’s just pause just for a minute, and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control.'”

...(snip)...

After speaking those words, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., voted no. And the fevered slanders began immediately. She was called a traitor. Pundits went crazy. Death threats came.

Lee kept on keeping on. And nearly six years later, she’s a key leader of antiwar forces inside and outside Congress. In her own way, she is a political descendent of Sen. Morse, whose denunciations of the Vietnam War are equally inspiring to watch today. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/08/07/a_lonely_stand_against_war.php