The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

EDITORIAL
Don’t Wait on the Democrats—Pull the Troops out NOW!

Apr 2, 2007

Democrats in the House and then the Senate voted to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

Does that mean U.S. troops are going to be pulled out of Iraq soon? Don’t bet your life on it. Don’t even bet a plugged nickel on it.

First of all because Bush has already said that he is going to veto whatever resolution comes to his desk.

But that’s not the worst of it.

The House Democrats supposedly passed a "binding" resolution for the U.S. to get out of Iraq–but not for 17 months. And we all know how much garbage these people can dredge up within 17 months to justify breaking their "binding" promises.

The Senate Democrats didn’t even have the stomach to pass a "binding" resolution. They just passed something that expressed the "sense of the Senate" that they want "most" U.S. troops out of Iraq in 12 months.

In reality, the Democrats are doing nothing but trying to get us to play the waiting game.

They"re making a show that they really do want to get out of this war, but there’s nothing they can do about it, since Bush is sitting in the White House.

These resolution are aimed at making us wait until the 2008 presidential election.

In reality, not even then. Because then we are supposed to wait until the new president gets inaugurated in January, and then wait until he chooses his cabinet, and then wait until he figures out what to do.

In other words, wait, wait, wait.

No! There’s a war going on. Every day we wait, more Iraqi people are being slaughtered. Every day we wait, more U.S. troops are being sacrificed on the oil companies’ altar of profits.

Wait? For what? For the Democrats to try to drag this out longer?

No!

If the Democrats were opposed to this war, they would not have passed such a timid, little milk toast resolution. They would have ordered Bush to immediately start the pull out. And, if he didn’t, they would have called on the population to get out in the streets and shut this country down. There are enough people opposed to this war, angry about this war, who could do that.

But the Democrats won’t upset the apple cart. Not those political fence-sitters.

If this war is to be stopped it will be stopped by the people really concerned: by the laboring people of this country who are paying this war’s price many times over. We are the ones in the army paying the price with our lives. We are the ones whose children’s schools are closing because all this country’s money is going for war. We are the ones who see people around us dying from lack of medical care in this country–for the same reason.

We are the people who need to be out in the streets now. We need to be saying, NO more! Not one more day of war. Stop. Stop NOW. Troops out now!