COHASSET TOWN COMMITTEE’S RESPONSE TO SUDBURY TOWN COMMITTEE’S PROMULGATED VIEWS ON THE IRAQ WAR
To: Sudbury Democratic Town Committee
cc: Democratic State Committee, DemChairsForum@yahoogroups.com
From: Cohasset Democratic Town Committee
Date: 3/11/09
Thank you for sending us your position papers on Iraq. It is so encouraging to see fellow committees actively debating the important issues of the day, in the true big “D” and small “d” democratic tradition.
While we are certainly with you in spirit, we respectfully cannot join you in dissemination of these papers. Our Committee has a long commitment to ending the war in Iraq. We had maintained a peace vigil on our Town Common every Saturday morning for over two years, calling for an end to US involvement and drawing attention to this important issue, being very well-received in our perhaps more conservative town. We also hold a periodic Cohasset Political Forum to debate and inform on the issues of the day. Three have been devoted to the Iraq War and have been our best in attendance by far. Your papers prompt us to take up the issue again in the near future.
We ended our vigil, however, upon the election of President Obama. As I am sure your members did, we all worked very hard to get President Obama elected. We all have great hope for this Presidency. The amount of critical issues he faces, all left to him by the discredited policies of the previous Administration, is nearly, if not truly, unprecedented. He needs our support, not our critique, and opening up a public split in policy from our own side, especially in the face of a vituperative Republican Right wishing the President to fail in all respects, is wrong and ill-advised.
One of our member’s e-mail comments to your documents expresses it as follows:
(W)e have waited an agonizingly long time for a new president and a new direction for our country. Many of you worked very hard to have Barack Obama in a position to make the difficult decisions that face his administration. While (we) don't advocate blindly going along, (we) do think that as leaders of the Democratic party we should give this new President our unwavering support. None of us wants to continue this heartbreaking war, least of all the President, but (we) think we should not only defer to the judgment of his Administration, but be vocal in our support of (it).
Another of our members, our longest peace
vigilist, stated it this way:
This
is not President Obama's war - he had nothing to do with starting it.
However it IS his war now, as he IS the President and is responsible for
figuring out, with his advisors, how to proceed from here. He has been in
office less than 6 weeks. As Democrats, I think we owe him the courtesy and
the trust to let him gather facts and opinions, and then present to us and to
Congress a coherent plan that includes drawing our involvement in Iraq to a close.
This war actually belongs not only to Pres. Bush and Company, but also to the
past couple of Congresses. Congress has many members, including most of
the Massachusetts delegation, (who) were present when this war was insinuated
onto the world. It is to these "public servants" that our
protests, suggestions, demands, etc., should be directed. Let them hear
from us that we want an end to this situation.
……..
If after 12-18 months we come to realize that Pres Obama has not and cannot move forcefully on this, maybe we will see that he is to blame for the delay, and then we can communicate with him to express our displeasure with HIM. But for now, let's give him some time, our support, and our trust to untangle this mess.
To that end, this latter member suggests, and we as a Committee endorse, thanking those members of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation, like our Rep. Delahunt, who has been strong in opposition to the war, and reminding all of them of our continued opposition to the war and our desire to see all reasonable policies pursued towards bringing about an end to that conflict.