GRAVEL AT DARTMOUTH DEBATE: “WE’RE STARTING A WAR RIGHT NOW”

I admire your lucidity, Gravel, and I am doing everything I can to make you more well-known. Even though MSNBC only gave you 5 minutes, I loved what you said.

I received an email from the People's Email Network about the Lieberman-Kyl amendment (the original version was even more frightening), and I tried calling my senators (Ben Cardin and Mikulski). In spite of my phone call, they voted for that abominable amendment, and I felt like my actions amounted to nothing.

 Representative government doesn't work, and people are more competent than the Congress. The spectrum of this country is also more diverse than that of the Congress.

Your plan to fight global warming is also hopeful. Al Gore made a movie, but only you have actions.

The drinking age should be reduced in order to confront the binge drinking culture of this country. In France, Japan, etc. alcohol is part of meal (in Japan, sake is even part of some shinto rituals). In the US, people seem to drink to get drunk, and that needs to change. By reducing the age to 18, I think people can develop a healthier relationship with alcohol.

I found one part of the debate weird. Why did Tim Russert ask a question about a Bible verse? Didn't Thomas Jefferson say that there should be a wall between Church and State? The United States should stay away from theocracy, and the religion of a politican shouldn't be an issue. I think that theocracy leads to hypocrisy (whether it's in Iran, Saudi Arabia...), and I noted that even though the US criticizes Iran, we're applying a double standard, especially with the creationists, the presence of a religious book when one takes an oath, the presence of God in the pledge of allegiance and the fact that people want to put prayer in schools. I am a liberal Muslim, and I want liberals to have more influence (the wahhabists and conservatives have too much influence. This is why terrorism occurs, especially with the impact of Qutbism, which combines politics and religion). Conservatives have far too much influence in Islam when I see people oppose gay marriage, insult Salman Rushdie, express blind resentment towards Israel (People tend to see Israel and Palestine as an exception instead of an indicator of the tensions involved with the foundations of new States. Look at the US with the Native Americans! Independence movements also caused tensions between the French and the Algerians. When I see some countries ban people with an Israeli stamp on their passport and Ahmadinejad expressing hatred towards Israel and countries like Lebanon denying Lebanese citizenship to Lebanese-born people of Palestinian ancestry, I think that madness is present. Israel and Palestine have just as many issues as other states, especially France and Germany between 1870 and 1945 (the Alsace-Lorraine dispute was very violent. One million people died in the battle of Verdun alone, and three violent wars (including the 2 world wars) made the French and the Germans hate each other because of a piece of land). I support Onevoice, a grassroots movement that promotes peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I know both sides are really fed up with the conflict. I support peaceful people everywhere, and I think that both sides realize that representative governement is broken and that they need to do the peace efforts themselves. I personally think that AIPAC is an anti-Israeli group because a military response only reinforces the cycle of violence. Suicide bombings and Hamas are scary, but the Israeli army is making things worse) and some conservative Muslims deem less conservative people non-Muslims (I can tell you that I've been called a fraud several times simply because I support the evolution theory, and I think that Israel has the right to exist). But then again, some Christian conservatives hate Dan Brown and Darwin.

I admit that I am an oddball even in my family (I was born in the US, but my family is Tunisian). I think that the West is doing a lot of wrong, but the Muslim world shares a signficant amount of the blame too.

Thank you for your courage. You have taught me a lot in this election, and I realize that I too need to stand up for what I believe in. You remind me of Malalai Joya in some ways because she has to confront the Afghan warlords in Parliament for the sake of the truth, and she helped me find out what was really going on in Afghanistan. In your case, you are confronting the warmongering politicians in the US, and you continue exposing the truth.

From 71's source, scroll down to News at Vote on the Book :

The debate had, to paraphrase Dickens, the best of moments and the worst of moments. Former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel insisted that the Senate was fully empowered to stop the mess in Iraq by voting on it every day.

When moderator Tim Russert asked if Gravel thought that the presidential candidates in the Senate should put their campaigns on hold so they could be in Washington to vote every day, Gravel answered, “If it stops the killing – my God, yes – do it.”

That was the best of moments. The worst of moments followed the next instant, when Russert asked the current Senators onstage whether they’d be willing to suspend their campaigns to end the war.

Not one raised their hand or said they would.

This was no surprise by any means, but it gave a strong implication of where the priorities of four of the eight Democratic candidates are.

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http://www.votenic.com

Results posted Tuesday evening

It is good to read Democrats Were Charged To End A War, Not Start One at Common Dreams.

But reading through some of the comments there reinforces my belief that Mike ought to explicitly identify the AIPAC, and its advocacy of the Neocon far-right program of all-war all-the-time, as the enemy not only of the Palestinians but also of us American and of the Israelis themselves.

The AIPAC and the Top Down Media are adept at together turning any criticism of the Neocons and the AIPAC into attacks on Israel, or on "the Jews". And some of the comments to Mike's article border on this themselves.

The AIPAC tried to lump John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt together with David Duke, one of their perennially favorite apartheid advocates, because Duke had himself tried to ride piggy-back on The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.

Without an explicit statement of exactly where he stands on the far-right wing AIPAC and its influence on both the Executive and the Senate and House the AIPAC and the Top Down Media will team up to cast Mike as a David Duke clone themselves.

We are having enough trouble trying to get the straight talk out ourselves without having to battle the false charges and smears of the far-right wing.

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I was greatly disappointed in how little time Tim Russet ever gave to Mike Gravel in the Darmouth Debates... It is as though they tried to keep him out... The camera rarely went to him

It was obviously clear  the top 3 contenders would not commit to when we would get out of Iraq...Shame on them!!!

 I also appreciated that Mike Gravel immediately brought up the bill that was recently prersented in Congress regarding Iran and letting it be know who voted for it and who did not and who made themselves absent...Thank  you Mike for doing this. Keep up Public Appearances and Public Awareness.. America better wake-up!

I only wish you could have received equal time with the other candidates...

Questioned by Russert if he was suggesting that the candidates suspend their campaigns to end the war, Senator Gravel responded: “If it stops the killing-my God, yes-do it.”

Imagine the headline: "Senator suspends campaign to bring end to the Iraq War!"

The senators running for President in 08 announce they are suspending their campaigns to focus on a key issue of their campaigns "ending the war"?  What greater free advertising could they get?  FOXNEWS, CNN, et al. would roll a 24 hour "commercial" for their efforts.  Their efforts in the cause of peace complete with spin and slander, ahh America.   

Secondarily, suspending their campaigns for peace would be the best thing for their campaigns, and the best thing for peace. 

Something so Simple is lost on Someone so Simple.

-pLEBEIUS