This afternoon I attended a "town meeting" on the war in Iraq in Concord, Massachusetts. The meeting drew about three hundred folks from Concord and the surrounding towns in the 5th Congressional District northwest of Boston. The meeting was sponsored by our congressman, Marty Meehan. Meehan began the meeting with an opening statement on his own view of the war. He spoke about how much Murtha's recent actions have impacted him and the whole Congress.
Meehan is one of a few Massachusetts house members who supported the administration in the fall of 2003. I was very dissapointed in him then but he has changed his mind. He introduced legislation earlier this year calling for a timetable for withdrawal and today he said that he would support Murtha's resolution.
About forty or fifty people got a chance to speak during the two plus hour meeting and all but five or six were against the current policy. The loudest applause of the afternoon was for a person who asked when the Democratis were going to call for impeachment. People raised a great variety of concerns including the lies about prewar intelligence; torture; the recent revelations about paying for propaganda in the Iraqi press; Seymour Hersh's recent article on the air war. Concerns were raised by a Congregational minister about American responsbility for the mess we have created in Iraq as well. One person took the "McCain" position about needing to put more troops in but Meehan had a cogent response. He said essentially that it was too late for that to make a difference. He argued that there was a window when that could have made a difference but it would not know and cited a State Department poll showing that 45% of Iraqis think that insurgent attacks on Americans are justifiable and 80% viewed as occupiers.
Vets for Peace had a big presence with five or six WWII, Korea, and Vietnam vets speaking up for withdrawal. Of the few pro administration folks who spoke up, two were from outside the district, perhaps ringers called in by the state Republican party. One Iraq war veteran spoke up, a 28 year old reservist who said that the Iraqi people deserved a chance for democracy and that he was willing to go back. He did not vigrously defend the current policy though and seemed to respond to Meehan on veteran health care issues.
One of the most cogent comments was made near the end of the meeting by someone who said that there was no solution that could solve all the problems this war has created but that should not stop the Democrats from acting. Just because we can't solve everything doesn't mean we shouldn't act. We cannot get American troops out and assure a better Iraqi future but we aren't going to be able to solve all of the problems
I believe that the Murtha resolution needs to become the focal point. We need to push every Democrat to support it and force a real vote on it in the House.