Anti-war campaign in town to work on Ehlers

Analysis:

This article is based upon the efforts by the Iraq Summer Campaign, which has been in Grand Rapids since late June. Early in the article it states that the group is “hoping to persuade the Republican U.S. representative from Grand Rapids to drop his support for the war.” However, on the main page of the group’s website they don’t call for an end to the war, rather they “demand that members of Congress and the Senate take a stand with the vast majority of Americans who want a safe and responsible redeployment of American Forces from Iraq.”

The article then has Congressman Ehlers state that “We have gone into Iraq, whether rightly or wrongly, but we have messed up their country, and we have a moral obligation to stay,” but that statement which is not substantiated with any data or sources is then followed by an Iraq Summer organizer who says “the coalition is not demanding an immediate end to the war and is avoiding partisan politics.” Is it clear from this article what the Iraq Summer group is asking for? To the issue of avoiding partisan politics, if you look at their website there is only criticism of Republican positions on the war, whether they are elected officials or Presidential candidates. Does that seem non-partisan? An Iraq Summer organizer then claims that “The right-wing blogs are already calling us out-of-town troublemakers,” but doesn’t cite which blogs.

The article concludes with more information on what the campaign hopes to accomplish, which includes a town hall meeting and a separate meeting with Ehlers. Ehlers then responds by saying he will meet with “local war opponents, not out of town organizers.” The final statement is from Ehlers who says “I’m swayed by facts,” but he does not provide one single fact about his position on the war or the Press reporter fails to mention them.

Story:

They have been in town several weeks now, organizing meetings, attending demonstrations, handing out lawn signs, and writing letters, all aimed at changing one man’s mind.

“The only person around here who can do anything about this is Vern Ehlers,” said Bryan Finken, 46, a part-time philosophy professor from Denver, about the war in Iraq.

He arrived in June. Ben Thielemier, 22, came from Arkansas a couple of weeks later, hoping to persuade the Republican U.S. representative from Grand Rapids to drop his support for the war.

Their effort is part of a national campaign by a coalition of anti-war groups called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. The effort is targeting 40 Republican members of Congress they believe may be wavering in their support for the war.

Those 40, if they change their minds, would give the war’s opponents a veto-proof majority in Congress, organizers said. They call their campaign Iraq Summer, modeled after the 1964 Freedom Summer, which registered black voters in the South, and the summer of 1967 protests against the Vietnam War.

Although he voted for a resolution allowing President Bush to launch the war, Ehlers since has called it a mistake based on faulty intelligence. Yet, he has voted to continue funding for the war.

“To continue to fund it, to continue to keep our troops in harm’s way doesn’t make sense,” Thielemier said. “It’s doublespeak.”

But Ehlers contended pulling out now would lead to a “bloodbath.”

“We’re several years past that initial decision,” he said. “We have gone into Iraq, whether rightly or wrongly, but we have messed up their country, and we have a moral obligation to stay.”

Finken said the coalition is not demanding an immediate end to the war and is avoiding partisan politics.

Soon after arriving, Finken contacted local peace activists and set up temporary quarters at the Institute for Global Education, 1118 Wealthy St. SE.

“The right-wing blogs are already calling us out-of-town troublemakers,” Finken said.

His goal, he said, is not to foment but to organize the opposition already here.

In a recent CBS-TV News/The New York Times poll, 69 percent of Americans said they disapprove of Bush’s handling of the war, and slightly more than half said the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq.

Locally, Finken and Thielemier sense similar opposition.

They have given out 900 lawn signs that read “Support the Troops; End the War,” circulated petitions, and every Monday afternoon, attended anti-war rallies on Fulton Street and Division Avenue.

They plan to end their efforts here Aug. 28 with a town hall meeting at Grand Valley State University’s Loosemore Auditorium downtown.

By then, they hope to arrange a meeting with Ehlers.

Ehlers said he is willing to meet with local war opponents, not out-of-town organizers. But he added he will not be influenced by public demonstrations.

“I’m swayed by facts,” he said. “If I’m not, then I’m too weak-kneed to be a member of Congress.”