I have some questions for the authors of the following “voters pledge” which Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, wants me to sign:
“I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or President who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign.”
–What do you mean by “speedy end to the war in Iraq”? Do you mean the immediate withdrawal of all American forces, regardless of conditions on on the ground? What if the Americans pull out and the war goes on? What if the withdrawal leads to circumstances in which even more Iraqis die than are dying now? By your definition, does “the war in Iraq” end the moment American soldiers leave?
–What do you mean by a “war of aggression”? Were the interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, wars of aggression? Slobodan Milosevic, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein thought they were. (Most of the people on the ground in those places didn’t think so.) What about a future intervention to stop the mass murder in a place like Darfur? The government of Sudan would consider that a war of aggression.
Define your terms, please.
