If not now, when?

• Author: McPhearson, Michael
• Position: Thinking Politically - Viewpoint essay

On February 27, 2007, I participated in my first open act of civil disobedience as part of the Occupation Project. I, along with St. Louis local chapter President Chuc Smith, three other veterans (Jim Allen, Harry Wyman and VFP office manager Cherie Eichholz), and Military Families Speak Out member D. Ridgley Brown, visited Representative Russ Carnahan's office. Jim Allen and I decided to sit-in to protest Carnahan's refusal to pledge not to continue funding for the war. As a result, Jim and I were arrested.

This was not the first time Rep. Carnahan, a Democrat, has been approached on this subject. I have been to his office more than once and on Friday February 23, I, along with veterans Woody Powell, Catie Shinn, Cherie, Chuc, and National Guard member and Appeal for Redress signer Brian Hill and Iraq Veteran Cloy Richards sat down with Carnahan and discussed de-funding.

Carnahan's basic rap is that he is against the escalation and believes the war must come to an end. He cannot promise to vote against a bill he has not seen. He thinks that Jack Murtha's plan to restrict the ability of the President to continue the war via oversight and placing high standards on troop readiness before deployment is promising and he does not want to de-fund the troops.

We explained that de-funding the war is not de-funding the troops--legislative restrictions on the President will not end the war. Giving money to the President for the war will only prolong the war and Bush has told us over and over he does not intend to end the war. The American people voted for new congressional leadership to end the war and de-funding is the quickest route to make that happen.

We also told him that Democrats should put the President on the defensive by de-funding the war and make him explain why he continues to wage war when Congress has demanded a change of course based on the mandate from the American people. We emphasized that every day Congress spends looking for less direct ways to end the war, on average three US service members die as do many Iraqi children, women and men.

Unfortunately, we reached little agreement beyond the obvious--the war must end. It appears that most Democrats and Veterans For Peace are on a different time table.

Our entering Rep. Carnahan's office was part of weeks of outreach and meetings to change his mind. I decided that this time I was not leaving until I received a satisfactory answer. Thus I was willing to risk arrest. There are many...