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HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.

December 21, 2005

"There is No Democratic Position on the War"

Nancy Pelosi’s Truth

by JOSHUA FRANK

Every so often a sliver of truth trembles off the lips of one of our elected officials. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does occur it needs to underscored and highlighted.

Representative Nancy Pelosi gave the antiwar movement an honest reality check last week when she laid out quite plainly the Democrat’s position-er, non-position-on the Iraq war. As she told the Washington Post, "There is no one Democratic voice … and there is no one Democratic position."

In other words, the Democrats will not take a stand on the war and they won’t draw up a unified exit strategy anytime soon. And perhaps worst of all, they won’t be making the war a major focal point in the upcoming 2006 congressional elections. They’ll just continue to argue amongst themselves while more civilians and soldiers perish in Iraq.

The Democrats capitulate, yet again.

At least Pelosi is shooting it to us straight, I suppose. She’s not candy-coating her party’s ineptitude. Instead, she has spelled out their gross inadequacies word for bloody word. Her party is fractured and unable to muster any sort of real opposition to the Bush administration-and she knows it. Not only do the Democrats disagree on how to take on the Republicans, they aren’t even sure they should.

For the most part what the Democrats seem to be upset about is Bush’s misguided rationale for invading Iraq (of course, the Dems spouted virtually the same set of lies that got us into this war), not how to get our troops the heck out of there.

Pelosi recently endorsed Rep. John Murtha’s call to redeploy US troops, but she assured us that this was not indicative of the Democrats as a whole. Pelosi also told reporters she thought the Republican-controlled Congress was "the most corrupt in history." If that is indeed true, then what are the Democrats going to do? Keep on whining? The only reason the corrupt Republicans rule the roost in Washington is because the corrupt Democrats can’t muster any viable opposition. They’ve let Bush get away with murder.

Despite the laundry list of Democratic failures, Pelosi and others will be threatening us all to "vote Dem or die" in the upcoming elections. It will be a replay of the 2004 presidential charade where antiwar folks were told to vote for John Kerry or suffer the consequences of another four years of Bush. Kerry didn’t offer an alternative, but the antiwar movement backed him regardless and we lost.

The Democrats hope 2006 will be the same. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Hillary Clinton and others will be expecting the antiwar movement’s support even though their party has not taken a position on the war. They’ll expect us to vote for them without conceding any of our demands.

JOSHUA FRANK is the author of the brand new book, Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, which has just been published by Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted rate at www.brickburner.org. Joshua can be reached at Joshua@brickburner.org.