Hon. Barbara Lee & Peace Team.net – 2006-10-25 23:52:42
Dear Environmentalists Against War
Hon. Barbara Lee / US Congress
WASHINGTON (October 19, 2006) — Thank you for your message regarding Iran. I appreciate hearing from you. As a long-time advocate for nuclear nonproliferation, I am concerned about the threat a nuclear Iran poses to not only the Middle East, but also the world.
However, I share your concerns that the administration’s hostile posturing toward Iran will ultimately end in another preemption strike against Iran and lead to prolonged war that neither we nor the world can afford.
The May 31 announcement that the Bush administration will join with the EU+3, China, and Russia in negotiations with Iran is a significant development. It is a step in the right direction.
As Jessica Mathews, president of the non-partisan Carnegie Endowment has observed, joining in the negotiations and focusing on non-proliferation over regime change is crucial to the process.
The bottom line is that a policy of regime change must be off the table if diplomatic negotiations are to succeed.
At the same time, the administration’s participation in negotiations must not end our vigilance.
Frankly, we should all be concerned about the statements and actions that the administration is making given our experience in the lead up to the war in Iraq. The parallels are eerily similar.
That’s why I introduced H.Res. 846, a resolution of inquiry to demand that the President provide to Congress all documents including legal advisory opinions, strategy papers, planning documents in his possession designed to either cause regime change in or for the use of military force against Iran.
The House International Relations Committee unfortunately rejected this attempt to get at the truth.
Rest assured, I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that all our diplomatic options are employed. Diplomacy must not be a checkbox we mark off on the way to war.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please stay in touch.
HELP INSPIRE DEMOCRATIC INCUMBENTS TO SUPPORT COURAGEOUS NEW FACES SPEAKING OUT TO BRING OUR TROOPS HOME
ACTION PAGE:
http://www.peaceteam.net/standing_together.php
First, we have ongoing good news. Twenty nominated Democratic candidates for Congress on the Peace Team now have their own versions of the Lie/Die spot, which so effectively confronts the Bush administration on their Iraq lies.
We have raised over $50,000 dollars in support of these campaigns, including one magnificent donor already who gave the LEGAL LIMIT to ten candidates each. Democratic senate candidate Jean Hay Bright is featuring her Lie/Die spot in Maine.
Ted Ankrum is just about to hit the air waves in TX-10 with his, and all the other candidates are looking to buy as much time as they can for this election swinging campaign commercial.
Every Republican strategist is desperate to get the subject off of Iraq, and their devastating poll numbers on the issue of their duplicitous failure there. Every Republican candidate is running away from their rubber stamping of a foreign policy that was arrogant, ignorant and wrong on its face.
The more pressure we apply there the more we win real substantive policy change by getting these hard-hitting Lie/Die spots on the TV.
Now is the time for all current Democratic INCUMBENTS, most of whom can practically coast through this election, to lend a hand to the courageous NON-incumbents they will need to add to their caucus to build the new progressive majority.
Without picking on anyone in particular, many have huge war chests which are just sitting idle right now. This is all while there are 10-20 seats that could be swung with the equivalent of political chicken feed, especially in this election, as day by day more seats are moved from the so-called safe column to being considered competitive.
When we have the compelling advantage as we do now, THAT’S when we are supposed to pour it on, to turn longshots into close races, and to turn close races into landslides. Yet we have talked to candidate after candidate who tell us they us they have gotten no help from the DCCC, who tell us the party has so far just kicked them to the curb.
That is why your contributions are making all the difference in the world. And what we need to do now is appeal to INDIVIDUAL Democratic incumbents, who truly are safe in this election, to lend a hand to help pull up the candidates they will need to have voting with them in our new Congress.
ACTION PAGE:
http://www.peaceteam.net/standing_together.php
What we are asking you to do with this alert, is to contact your Democratic incumbents and expressly ask them to contribute to the candidates on the Peace Team who have their Lie/Die spots. You can tell them that you have yourself contributed $5 or $10, or whatever you can personally afford.
Ask them if they AGREE with the premise of the Peace Team, that our troops in Iraq need to start coming home now. And if they do, ask them to visit the Peace Team dot net site and make whatever donation then can be inspired to make, to help these brave candidates who are standing together, and with THEM, on the most important and overriding issue of our time.
The special action page above has a lookup function where you can get the local phone and fax numbers of all their district offices. Use the form to send an email, but just as critically, call on the phone and ask to speak to their political director. Ask them to visit the Peace Team dot net site where with one click anybody can make a donation to all the Peace Team candidates at once who have their Lie/Die spots ready to go.
We have asked our members of Congress to listen to us many times, and many times they HAVE, as recently as when we stopped the approval of yet another unwarranted estate tax gift to the most selfish of the rich. Ask them to step up to the plate, even as we ourselves are doing right now, to help pull up their future congressional colleagues by their bootstraps, as they can easily afford to do.
• TV SPOT DONATIONS PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net
• Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours.
• To be added to the list go to http://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm
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