A summer-long campaign calling for troop withdrawal from Iraq will culminate Tuesday in a series of town-hall meetings at locations in 15 states, including Virginia.
The University Student Commons is one of three sites in the commonwealth to host one of the forums, which will feature veterans, religious leaders and other activists speaking against the Iraq war.
Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, a coalition of anti-war groups, including the prominent organization MoveOn.org, is behind the effort, called the Take a Stand Campaign. With Congress set to reconvene after Labor Day, the coalition has spent millions this summer advertising, canvassing and petitioning in an attempt to pressure key Republican legislators to change their stances on the war.
“These are the people that we find to be the most important because they are close to Bush,” said Lindsey Gardner, a Virginia field organizer with AAEI, which has helped organize the event at the Commons.
If Bush’s supporters in the legislature abandon their support for the Iraq War under public pressure, Gardner said, Bush would be forced eventually to change his war policy.
The president and many legislators, however, said they will not reevaluate their positions until Gen. David Petraeaus, the top military commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker give Congress a much-anticipated update in September about Bush’s decision earlier this year to escalate the troop presence in Iraq by 30,000 additional troops.
Influential Virginia Sen. John Warner, whom Gardner has targeted this summer, is one legislator who is not waiting for the report. After returning from a recent trip to the Middle East, the senator called for partial withdrawal of the 160,000 troops in Iraq on Thursday, saying as few as 5,000 of them could return home by Christmas.
Gardner, who has repeatedly invited Warner to attend Wednesday’s meeting at the Commons, said the senator’s remarks are a great start, but more needs to be done.
“He’s asking for 5,000 troops withdrawn. Obviously that’s not what we’d like to see,” Gardner said. “We’d like to see all of them withdrawn or at least some plan of what’s supposed to happen.”
While AAEI spreads its anti-war message through Labor Day, another organization, Freedom’s Watch, is counteracting the coalition by trying to rouse support for the Iraq war and the overall war on terrorism. The organization is spending $15 million on radio and television advertisements that are running in 20 states, including Virginia.
“Those who want to quit while victory is possible have dominated the public debate about terror and Iraq since the 2004 election,” said Bradley Blakeman, Freedom’s Watch president, in a recent press release. “Freedom’s Watch is going to change that.”
The organization is asking the public to call an 800-number displayed in the ads and urge their representatives “not to surrender to terror,” according to the release.
Earlier this month, a Gallop poll found that Americans are largely unsure of the best way to remove troops from Iraq and when to do so. According to the poll, 66 percent of the population wants all U.S. troops, except a small contingent involved in counter-terrorist operations, to leave Iraq sometime by April.
Fifty-six percent of Americans, however, do not want Congress to take action until Petraeus issues his September report. Thirty-nine percent of Americans want Congress to change the war policy now.
What: “Take a Stand” town-hall forum, sponsored by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq
Where: University Student Commons When: 7 p.m.
Who: Speakers will include religious leaders and veterans. Author and journalist Robert Dreyfuss, who writes for Rolling Stone and is a contributing editor at The Nation, will headline the panel.