Posted on 02/17/2006 1:51:11 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
KEWAUNEE, WI (AP) -- Peace activist Jill Bussiere wants the United States to bring its troops home from Iraq immediately, so she went door-to-door in this community in the hopes of getting others to join her cause.
Bussiere helped organize a petition drive that resulted in a referendum on Iraq being put on the ballot during Kewaunee's upcoming spring election. It asks whether the city's leaders should urge the U.S. to begin an immediate withdrawal of its troops, beginning with the National Guard and Reserves.
"Is it ever practical to try and stop a war?" asked Bussiere, a 51-year-old mother of three. "But isn't it the right thing to do? Isn't it our duty?"
Kewaunee, a city of 3,000 on the shores of Lake Michigan, is one of 22 cities, villages and towns in Wisconsin that have an Iraq referendum on their April 4 ballots - elections usually dominated by local races for mayors, city councils and school boards. Fifty troops from Wisconsin have died in Iraq since the invasion nearly three years ago.
The effort in Wisconsin - in tiny villages like Frederic and Ephraim and the larger cities of Madison and La Crosse - is designed to influence later races for Congress, said coordinator Steve Burns at the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice in Madison.
Organizers, mostly associated with Wisconsin's Green Party, gathered enough signatures on petitions to put the issue before voters. Supporters do not expect to get the attention of President Bush, who has rejected calls for a troop withdrawl date.
"The plan is to win these referendums in diverse areas of the state so they are not just coming from liberal Madison," said Burns, a Green Party activist. "We all remember the 2004 presidential election when they spent more time talking about the Vietnam War than they did talking about the Iraq war. We don't want that to happen again."
City councils in other communities around the nation have approved measures opposing the war or calling for troops to come home.
Harlem Township in northern Illinois authorized a Nov. 1 troop withdrawal question for the March 21 ballot. In Burlington, Vt., anti-war activists gathered enough signatures on petitions to ask voters to urge the city to work to prevent overseas deployments of the Vermont Air National Guard. Last March, at dozens of annual town meetings in Vermont, communities voted on the war, mostly backing resolutions critical of it.
Seven of the Wisconsin votes are scheduled in the northeastern part of the state, in Kewaunee and Door counties. Bush won both in his 2004 re-election.
In La Crosse, a divided city council forwarded the issue to the ballot, but also voted 13 to 3 to oppose immediate withdrawl from Iraq. Alderman Tom Sweeney said the referendum was misguided.
"We don't win our wars when we don't let the generals run them," said Sweeney, a businessman who served 25 years in the Navy or the Navy Reserves. "This is going to have about as much weight as that pebble I am looking at in my driveway. No matter which way it goes, it is going to be irrelevant."
In Watertown, troops who served in Iraq told City Council they opposed putting the issue on the ballot and spoke passionately about how their work was important. The council ultimately decided the issue wasn't proper, but a judge later ordered it to put the measure on the ballot or adopt it. The referendum will appear on the April 4 ballot.
"I don't know how it is going to turn out," said Hiroshi Kanno, clerk of Newport, which has about 250 eligible voters near the tourist mecca of Wisconsin Dells. "We are a relatively conservative area. Maybe it will gin up the election a bit."
Oh, I see! This has NOTHING to do with actually bringing troops HOME; it's all about influencing future elections.
Well, at least they've finally admitted to it...
"What The Peace-niks Are REALLY Up To" Ping! ;)
I've got now problem with Honesty...its just what they are being honest about is so painfully stupid.
I'm becoming convinced the war was a big mistake, and the troops should be brought home right now. Can I still be a conservative?
SLUGS
They are their own caricatures.
It's never wise to use recreational drugs AND be a Communist at the same time.
Can a Catholic believe in abortion?
Please knock on my door.
That's a stretch...
And Superior Firepower begins with dumping that pitiful-excuse-of-a-battle-rifle-round: the 5.56 / .223
Hagel's constituents in action. They are useful idiots for the terrorists. Ironically, they encourage the terrorists and prolong the war.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1579274/posts
"I'm becoming convinced the war was a big mistake, and the troops should be brought home right now. Can I still be a conservative?"
NO you can be an anti-American fascist pig faced democrat supporter of the terrorist.
I agree with both your points (the honesty AND the stupidity). They are merely useful idiots thinking they are doing the best for their children by trying to take the shortcut of immediate withdrawal. Ironically, " Organizers, mostly associated with Wisconsin's Green Party rally around environmental issues that are many decades off while ignoring the more immediate dangers of human oppression - thinking it will never come to their neighborhood candle parties.
Yes, there is always hope for wayward sheep.
Personally I think it's bizarre that more people oppose the war now that's it's proven to be a resounding success. I guess if you keep drinking the MSM kool-aid it builds up in your system like a toxin until you lose your better judgement.....
LMAO. I'm sure Bush will get right on it...
Can we please turn over certain parts of Wisconsin, esp. Madison, to Canada?
Hagel?
Hagel is from Nebraska, not Wisconsin...I should know, since I once supported him.
My bad, I meant Feingold.
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