Posted on 07/14/2005 9:46:54 AM PDT by kristinn
Virginia Rodino, who serves as a director for Ralph Nader's Democracy Rising and is on the administrative steering committee for the so-called antiwar group United for Peace and Justice, called for the military defeat of the United States in Iraq in an essay published July 5.
In addition to her roles in Nader's Democracy Rising and United for Peace and Justice, Rodino was the Green Party's 2004 candidate for the House of Representatives for the 7th Congressional district of Maryland and the Maryland state coordinator for the 2004 presidential campaign of Nader.
Rodino is currently a professor of communications at Bowie State University in Maryland.
In her essay, Rodino writes about a recent 'unity' meeting between the two leading so-called antiwar groups in the U.S., International Answer and United for Peace and Justice in preparation for a weekend of protests in Washington, D.C. starting September 24. She calls for the left to play down its "unconditional support for the Iraqi resistance" by playing up the theme of 'bring the troops home now' so they can more effectively take advantage of left wing military family and veterans groups.
Rodino in her own words:
Iraq is now the Achilles heel of the beast, the U.S. government's drive for empire. Battered, raw, exposed, this point must be the focus of the anti-Imperialist Left in the United States: Efforts must continue to strike away at this concentrated weakness.
It is a crucial moment and a critical decision. Not because the Haitians, the Palestinians, the domestic poor and abused are any less deserving of liberation, but because ultimately a victory of the Iraqi people against the U.S. war machine is a victory for liberation struggles around the globe. A military defeat in Iraq will infuse confidence into struggles everywhere, as it did when the U.S. military was forced to withdraw from Vietnam. And the U.S. military is indeed losing, despite the unconvincing bravadura recently displayed by Bush, Cheney, and the other warmongers.
Thus, the focus on Iraq and bringing the troops home is ultimately strategic, "strategizing" being a mode of practice in which a unified Left must re-adopt in order to win back the gains and confidence it lost through reactionary right-wing assaults since the McCarthy era.
Rodino recently came to conservatives' attention when she was quoted as supporting the Iraqi resistance in a story about the recent G8 meeting protests in Scotland.
Wonder if Bowie State has a Young Republican's Club?
They say there is a fine line between genius and insanity.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Both of these skunks are at public universities.
GET A ROPE!
...preferably environmentally friendly hemp, of course.
Is she any relation to that POS ex senator from New Jersey, Peter, I hate guns and America Rodino.
Dad ping
Shocking! Guess that's why she's now at Bowie State. She's a gypsy instructor. Bowie State would have no stake in defending her honor. I think it was their turn to provide her employement.
Just be grateful they're not breeding - what would they have, Baby Bennie Arnold?
I never did like Nader and the Greens.
It is a crucial moment and a critical decision. Not because the Haitians, the Palestinians, the domestic poor and abused are any less deserving of liberation, but because ultimately a victory of the Iraqi people against the U.S. war machine is a victory for liberation struggles around the globe. A military defeat in Iraq will infuse confidence into struggles everywhere, as it did when the U.S. military was forced to withdraw from Vietnam. And the U.S. military is indeed losing, despite the unconvincing bravadura recently displayed by Bush, Cheney, and the other warmongers.
Thus, the focus on Iraq and bringing the troops home is ultimately strategic, "strategizing" being a mode of practice in which a unified Left must re-adopt in order to win back the gains and confidence it lost through reactionary right-wing assaults since the McCarthy era.
Where and when?
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