by Glynn Wilson
The debate is on live on C-SPAN2 in the U.S. Senate in a rare holiday Saturday session, with the new Democratic Party majority determined to send a message to President George W. Bush that his escalation of the war in Iraq with a troop surge of 21,500 soldiers is unacceptable to Congress and to an overwhelming majority of the American people.
Republicans offered a number of amendments to the Senate version of the resolution in an attempt to reject any possibility of a reduction in funding for the troops.
Since it will take 60 votes in the 100-member body for the resolution to prevail, the Associated Press and other news sources say passage in the Senate is unlikely.
Since the mid-term elections in November, 2006, the Democrats hold 49 seats and the Republicans hold 49, but two independents lean Democratic, including Sen. Joe Leiberman, who caucuses with the Democrats. That gives them the majority they need to control all the Senate committee chairmanships - and the agenda.
The troop surge has already begun, of course, since President Bush has made it clear that he has no intention of listening to Congress - or the American people - and will continue the disastrous course of putting troops in harms way in the middle of an Iraqi civil war.
The vast majority of military and political experts, including Republicans, say the war in Iraq has already been lost and that the continuing U.S. presence there only exacerbates Islamic militant anger at the West and makes America less safe, not more so.
Bush’s ill-concieved war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence has taken time and resources away from the war on terror and turned much of the world against the United States as a beacon of freedom around the globe.
We have urged the president and members of Congress to get out of this war as soon as possible and turn our resources and attention to problems that threaten the entire planet and the human species, not just the American people and multi-national corporations.
Even if somehow Bush could find a way to win the war in the Middle East, global warming and climate change threatens the entire planet, including not only humans but all the beautiful birds we are documenting this weekend in the Great Backyard Birdcount.
Please, Mr. President, won’t you listen to the voices who are trying to lead you in a more productive direction?
For any birders checking in here to see our most recent photographs, we know many of you are moderates, independents, libertarians and even Republicans. Won’t you consider voting on the basis of your love of birds? There are at least 15 million Americans who participate in birding activities. That constitutes a constituency large enough and powerful enough to change the course of American politics - and the world.
