Dear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, and all Members Of Congress,
Non-Binding Resolutions Won’t Stop the War
Stop the War: Vote No to More War Funding
On Saturday, February 17, thousands will rally at Times Square in New York City at 1:00 pm and march to the offices of Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Chuck Schumer to demand that they vote NO to more war funding.
Symbolic, non-binding resolutions that only oppose the escalation of the war, such as the one that the House will be voting on next week, and the resolution before the Senate last week, are not going to end the war.
Last November the people voted to change the leadership of Congress so that it could do what the President is unwilling to do — to end the war now. As Sen. Russ Feingold said recently at a Senate Hearing on Congress’s war powers, “Congress has the power to stop the war if it wants to.” Now the people have given you the mandate to do that.
Soon you will be asked to vote your approval of President Bush’s request for $245 billion more to pay for the war. A few of you have already indicated that you will not approve another dollar for war. All of you must to do the same. The next war funding vote will be every bit as important as the vote by the 109th Congress to authorize the war in October 2002.
If you vote no to more war funding the troops will come home, lives will be saved and this nightmare will come to an end. If you approve more funds for war, then more U.S. soldiers will die, more soldiers will be maimed for life, and the war will go on and on. If you approve more war funds, then no one can claim that this is solely the President’s war, or only one political party’s war; it will be Congress’s war.
It will not suffice to say that you oppose the war, but that you’re voting for more war funding to support the troops. The real support that the troops and their families need is for you to act decisively, cut off the war funding and bring everyone home alive.
Activists from across the country have designated Sat., Feb. 17, “VOTE NO WAR FUNDS DAY”. On that day, thousands of peace-loving people will rally and march in their communities to tell Congress that when it comes time to vote on more funds for war, the people will be watching and waiting.
