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The
WAND News Bulletin is posted on the
web site monthly.
When it appears, WAND sends out a condensed
version via email. If you would like
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let us know.
Happy
New Year, babycakes! We're celebrating
the demise of the administration's plan
to build brand spankin' new nuclear
weapons! So long, "Reliable
Replacement Warhead"... We won't
miss ya one bit.
|
| Table
of Contents | Click
to move to content within the Bulletin. |
Capitol
Hill Update, December 2007
 |
Today,
we got GOOD NEWS. Congress
just rejected the administration's
plans for new nuclear weapons
("Reliable Replacement
Warhead").
They didn't fund it one
bit.
And
thanks go to EVERYONE who
took action to help make
this happen! |
|
| WAND
mobilized members and friends
-- and we were part of a broad
effort across the country. Many
national organizations, local
groups, and individual citizens
worked together to defeat RRW.
We lobbied Congress, researched
and analyzed government documents
about RRW, published articles
on the dangers of new nuclear
weapons, ran advertisements in
newspapers, contacted our members
of Congress, and much more.
After
failing to pass most of the appropriations
bills required to fund the federal
government, this week the House
took up a massive "omnibus"
spending bill that includes more
than half of the federal government's
discretionary spending. Deep within
the half-trillion omnibus bill,
one line indicates zero money
has been appropriated for RRW.
The Senate has followed suit and
the president is expected to sign
the bill later this week.
That
one budget line represents the
culmination of hours upon hours
of advocacy and a huge victory
for the arms control community.
In the harsh political climate
of the past seven years, the arms
control community and individual
activists stopped the nuclear
"bunker buster," a new
nuclear bomb plant, and now the
Reliable Replacement Warhead.
Congratulations
all, and happy holidays! |
 |
Notes
from the WAND News Bulletin
editor
So we
got the good news about
the RRW getting zero funds.
But the rest of the budget
news isn't so rosy. |
|
Once
again, we note that well
over half the discretionary
budget goes to the Pentagon.
More to the point: much
of it to defense contractors
making high tech weapons
systems. And they make
millions off that stuff.
They get rich -- while
our government cries poor
when funding social programs.
It's
more than moral bankruptcy
at this point -- it's
short-sighted misallocation
that makes us more insecure
and vulnerable as a country
and a people.
Washington
Post: Bush sought
a less than 1 percent
increase overall for
domestic programs, which
wouldn't have made up
for inflation, much
less population growth.
His budget was layered
with budget cuts and
program eliminations
that had been rejected
in years past by GOP-dominated
Congresses.
"The
omnibus appropriations
bill is totally inadequate
to meet the long-term
investment needs of
the country, but it
is a whole lot better
than the country would
have had had it not
elected a Democratic
House last year,"
said House Appropriations
Committee Chairman David
Obey, D-Wis.
|
|
| Plan
Emerges For Moving 08 Domestic,
War Funds
Dec
11, 2007 | Michael Bruno/Aerospace
Daily & Defense Report
Aviaton
Week
...For
their part, Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
blasted the White House for
dismissing the legislation before
it is even unveiled.
"Unlike
the president, congressional
Democrats understand the need
to fund critical priorities
at home while we also correct
the disastrous course the White
House has set at home and abroad,"
they said. "This
war already costs taxpayers
$12 billion a month, and we
learned this week that yet another
billion dollars of military
equipment has gone missing in
Iraq. The last thing this administration
should do is preach about responsible
management."
Robert
Byrd (D-W.Va.), chairman of
the Senate Appropriations Committee,
called on the White House to
compromise. "It
is extraordinary that the president
would request an 11 percent
increase for the Department
of Defense, a 12 percent increase
for foreign aid, and $195 billion
of emergency funding for the
war, while asserting that a
4.7 percent increase for domestic
programs is fiscally irresponsible,"
he said.
|
|
Democrats
Bow to Bush's Demands in House
Spending Bill
Billions Trimmed From
New Requests
By Jonathan
Weisman | Washington
Post | December 13, 2007
House Democratic
leaders yesterday agreed to
meet President Bush's bottom-line
spending limit on a sprawling,
half-trillion-dollar domestic
spending bill, dropping their
demands for as much as $22 billion
in additional spending but vowing
to shift funds from the president's
priorities to theirs.
|
|
The
GOP's Budget Retreat
By
Robert D. Novak | Washington
Post | December 17, 2007
...The
overriding reason for backing
away from a showdown on government
spending was the feeling
in both parties that elected
representatives cannot return
home without booty, financed
by the bank accounts of American
taxpayers. However,
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt,
not previously known as a foe
of earmarks, has come to the
conclusion that his colleagues
vastly overrate the political
necessity of pork.
Blunt
and DeMint met privately Friday
to probe ways of enacting a
clean, pork-less bill. They
have not given up, but the odds
are heavily against them as
their colleagues yearn to return
home for Christmas. Each
is a Santa Claus distributing
earmarks to special interests,
with no thought of reform. |
|
Iraq
Funds Approved In Senate Budget
Bill
Antiwar Democrats Rebuffed in
70-25 Vote
By Paul Kane and Jonathan
Weisman | Washington
Post | December 19, 2007
...Democrats
privately acknowledged weeks
ago that Bush would get some
Iraq funding, but hoped to secure
$11 billion to $22 billion in
additional domestic spending
on the omnibus measure, which
rolled 11 of the 12 spending
bills into one huge package.
After
a veto threat 10 days ago on
the additional spending, Democrats
pared down the figure to Bush's
level but added about $11 billion
in emergency funding for initiatives
they supported, including drought
relief in the Southeast and
veterans' health care. A final
dispute between House and Senate
Democrats involved how much
Iraq funding Bush would receive,
setting up the compromise under
which the House would first
act only on Afghanistan funds.
But
even that compromise almost
unraveled yesterday as House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
faced a revolt from fiscally
conservative "Blue Dog"
House Democrats, who demanded
that Senate Democrats try again
to fully offset the AMT "patch"
with a revenue increase. That
prompted the speaker to temporarily
hold the massive spending bill
on her side of the Capitol until
Senate Majority Leader Harry
M. Reid (D-Nev.) agreed to hold
another vote on the AMT.
|
|
Oregon
WAND breaks new ground
with a great fundraising
event!
Susan Cundiff from Oregon
WAND reports that they
had a VERY successful
first time silent-auction
fundraiser in early December.
They raised around $2000
and honored members and
other great women in their
community! They also exhibited
and auctioned hand-crafted
chairs made by local artisans
that were inspired by
our 2007 Conference slogan
“Women at the Table
of Power.”
 |
If
Bella Abzug were alive
today, she would join
WAND. Listen to her
words:
"Just imagine
for a moment what
life in this country
might have been if
women had been properly
represented in Congress...Would
it consent to the
perverted sense of
priorities that has
dominated our government
for decades, where
billions have been
appropriated for war
while our human needs
as a people have been
neglected?"
|
|
|
Another
seat at the table of power?
Trying to pull one up for Donna
Edwards (MD)
(l
to r) Marie Rietmann, WAND public
policy director; Christina Cernansky,
WiLL associate; Donna Edwards,
executive director of Arca Foundation
(on leave) and candidate for
Congress from Maryland; Sen.
Nan Grogan Orrock (GA), WiLL
president
On
a snowy December night in DC,
WAND folks turned out to support
Donna Edwards and her bid for
Congress. WAND endorsed Edwards
in her last run for the seat
currently held by Albert R.
Wynn; she lost by a narrow margin.
|
New
Speaker Of The House Caught Wearing
Women’s Clothing
December 16, 2007 | The
Onion
WASHINGTON—After successfully
gaining a majority in both the
U.S. House and Senate in the 2006
midterm elections, the Democratic
Party was mired in controversy
when the newly elected
speaker of the house, Rep. Pelosi
(D-CA), was caught on camera wearing
what appeared to be a skirt, ladies
top, necklace, and pair of high
heels.
Photographs and video showing
the speaker traipsing around
the House floor in the garish
attire were leaked to C-SPAN
moments after the 110th Congress
took office on Jan. 3. Since
that time, Pelosi's unconventional
clothing choice has been universally
decried by Washington insiders
as "a tragic blot on the
long and honorable history of
U.S. speakers."
|
Nuclear
Warhead Cut From Spending Bill
Congress Instead Seeks 'Weapons
Strategy'
By Walter Pincus | Washington
Post |December 18, 2007
Congress
has cut all funding for continuing
development next year of a new
nuclear warhead from the omnibus
domestic spending bill, handing
the Bush administration a significant
setback.
Instead,
the measure, which Congress expects
to vote on this week, directs
the administration to develop
and submit to lawmakers a "comprehensive
nuclear weapons strategy for the
21st century," according
to the draft report of the appropriations
bill.
|
|
5
Myths About the Bomb and Us
By
Jeffrey Lewis | Washington
Post | December 2, 2007
The
Bush administration likes to boast
that it has dramatically cut the
size of the nation's nuclear stockpile.
Meanwhile, it's busily trying
to shore up congressional support
for multibillion-dollar proposals
to "modernize" the bristling
U.S. arsenal.
A
world that's skeptical about the
last superpower's intentions only
gets more so when U.S. officials
push unconvincing lines about
the world's deadliest weapons.
So here are a few myths about
the U.S. nuclear posture of which
the administration seems particularly
fond...
|
|
When
the Deterrent Becomes a Threat
Students and Faculty Should Question
the UC Role in Development of
a New Hydrogen Bomb
BY Robert Gard, Leonor Tomero
and Achraf Farraj
Contributing Writers | The
Daily Californian | November
30, 2007
The Cold War is
over and the threat of an all-out
nuclear war with Russia has greatly
diminished. Despite the fact that
the United States still has nearly
10,000 nuclear warheads, however,
the Bush administration argues
that new nuclear weapons are needed
to ensure “long-term confidence
in the future stockpile.”
The administration’s original
argument was that plutonium “pits,”
the cores of existing nuclear
weapons, were aging and becoming
“unreliable”—thus
explaining the “reliable”
nickname.
This argument
is misleading, and ignores recent
findings... |
|
A
world without nukes
By Karl F. Inderfurth and Bruce
Riedel | Washington
Post | November 24, 2007
...Shultz,
Perry, Kissinger, Nunn, and others
propose a number of urgent steps
that would lay the groundwork
for a world free of the nuclear
threat, including US ratification
of the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty and efforts to secure ratification
by other key states; providing
the highest possible standards
of security for all stocks of
weapons and nuclear material everywhere
in the world; and halting the
production of fissile material
for weapons globally. But, first
and foremost, they say, "is
intensive work with leaders of
the countries in possession of
nuclear weapons to turn the goal
of a world without nuclear weapons
into a joint enterprise."
India
is a strong candidate to become
part of that global effort...
This
could be the beginning basis for
a new US-India nuclear partnership,
if American officials avoid what
Indians referred to in the past
as "the three D's" of
US nuclear policy - dominance,
discrimination, and double standards.
In this regard, it would
also be appropriate for the United
States to lead by example, beginning
with further substantial reductions
in US nuclear forces, taking nuclear
weapons off high alert status
(thus reducing the danger of accidental
or unauthorized use), and Senate
ratification of the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty.
|
|
Remarks
by Secretary of Defense Robert
M. Gates on "soft power"
Landon
Lecture (Kansas State University)
| November 26, 2007
One
of the most important lessons
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
is that military success is not
sufficient to win: economic
development, institution-building
and the rule of law, promoting
internal reconciliation, good
governance, providing basic services
to the people, training and equipping
indigenous military and police
forces, strategic communications,
and more – these, along
with security, are essential ingredients
for long-term success. Accomplishing
all of these tasks will be necessary
to meet the diverse challenges
I have described.
So,
we must urgently devote time,
energy, and thought to how we
better organize ourselves to meet
the international challenges of
the present and the future.
|
| Bush
Faces Pressure to Shift War Priorities
As Iraq Calms, Focus Turns to
Afghanistan
By
Michael Abramowitz and Peter Baker
Washington
Post | December 17, 2007
With
violence on the decline in Iraq
but on the upswing in Afghanistan,
President Bush is facing new pressure
from the U.S. military to accelerate
a troop drawdown in Iraq and bulk
up force levels in Afghanistan,
according to senior U.S. officials.
Administration
officials said the White House
could start to debate the future
of the American military commitment
in both Iraq and Afghanistan as
early as next month. Some Pentagon
officials are urging a further
drawdown of forces in Iraq beyond
that envisioned by the White House,
which is set to reduce the number
of combat brigades from 20 to
15 by the end of next summer.
At the same time, commanders in
Afghanistan are looking for several
additional battalions, helicopters
and other resources to confront
a resurgent Taliban movement.
|
|
Some
talking heads making sense:
The Anti-War
Room
 |
Check
out these regular video releases
from our good friends at Win
Without War. |
|
|
Only
One Thing Unites Iraq: Hatred
of the US
by Patrick Cockburn | December
11, 2007 |The
Independent/UK
As
British forces come to the end
of their role in Iraq, what sort
of country do they leave behind?
Has the United States turned the
tide in Baghdad? Does
the fall in violence mean that
the country is stabilising after
more than four years of war? Or
are we seeing only a temporary
pause in the fighting? American
commentators are generally making
the same mistake that they have
made since the invasion of Iraq
was first contemplated five years
ago. They look at Iraq
in over-simple terms and exaggerate
the extent to which the US is
making the political weather and
is in control of events there....
American
politicians continually throw
up their hands in disgust that
Iraqis cannot reconcile or agree
on how to share power. But equally
destabilising is the presence
of a large US army in Iraq and
the uncertainty about what role
the US will play in future. However
much Iraqis may fight among themselves,
a central political fact in Iraq
remains the unpopularity of the
US-led occupation outside Kurdistan.
This has grown year by year since
the fall of Saddam Hussein. A
detailed opinion poll carried
out by ABC News, BBC and NTV of
Japan in August found that 57
per cent of Iraqis believe that
attacks on US forces are acceptable.
Nothing
is resolved in Iraq. Power is
wholly fragmented. The Americans
will discover, as the British
learned to their cost in Basra,
that they have few permanent allies
in Iraq. It
has become a land of warlords
in which fragile ceasefires might
last for months and might equally
collapse tomorrow.
|
|
Pelosi
Says She Miscalculated GOP Determination
on Iraq
CQ
TODAY
| Dec. 13, 2007
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif.,
admitted Thursday that she had
underestimated the willingness
of Republicans to stand behind
President Bush’s Iraq policy
despite the drubbing the GOP took
in the polls in 2006.
“The
assumption I made was that the
Republicans would soon see the
light,” she said. Instead,
the minority stuck to the president’s
war policy in the face of unrelenting
pressure from congressional Democrats
and powerful lobbying campaigns
by anti-war groups.
Bush
has consistently refused to accept
any limitations on his authority
to direct military operations
in Iraq, or on funds destined
for the war effort.
Democrats have been unable to
muster enough votes to force him
to accept a timetable for withdrawal
of combat troops or a change in
their mission in Iraq.
“That
was a revelation to me, because
I felt the American peoples’
voices were so strong and still
are in this regard that I hoped
that with some compromise and
reaching out there might be some
change in direction,” Pelosi
said. “But they are sticking
with the president on this.”
|
Is
Bush Stopped in His Tracks on
Iran?
by Chris Hedges | December 17,
2007 | Philadelphia
Inquirer
The
release of the National Intelligence
Estimate concerning Iran’s
nuclear status marks the latest
in a series of assaults by the
Pentagon and the intelligence
community against the war posturing
of the Bush administration.
President
Bush, seven years after assuming
power, may finally be halted in
his tracks - not by a resurgent
Democratic opposition, sagging
opinion polls, or an organized
antiwar movement, but by the entrenched
power structure in Washington
he set out to emasculate. The
tug-of-war between those within
the administration who advocate
as many as 1,000 air strikes on
suspected Iranian nuclear facilities
and those who oppose an attack
will be the most dramatic battle
of the final Bush years.
Director
of Central Intelligence Gen. Michael
V. Hayden and Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates have turned out
to be formidable foes to the Bush
agenda of preemptive war in the
Middle East. Gates, along with
Adm. William Fallon, commander
of U.S. Central Command, and Gen.
George Casey, the Army’s
new chief of staff, are openly
opposed to a war with Iran. And
they will not, unlike their predecessors,
permit the Bush White House to
use cooked and fabricated intelligence
to whip the country into war frenzy.
The
effort by the vice president’s
office to change or suppress the
NIE report, which was ready during
the summer and stated that Iran
had halted its attempt to develop
nuclear weapons four years ago,
has consumed the internal mechanisms
of government for the last few
weeks. The existence of the report
did nothing to prevent either
Bush or Vice President Cheney
from asserting before it was made
public that Iran was working to
develop a nuclear weapon and could
trigger, in the president’s
words, “World War III.” |
|
The
Spies Strike Back
By
Jim Hoagland | Washington
Post | December 9, 2007
The nation's espionage
agencies delivered their own declaration
of independence from the war aims
and rhetoric of President Bush
and Vice President Cheney in a
National Intelligence Estimate
that was ostensibly about Iran's
nuclear program.
But the CIA, DIA
and 14 other agencies grouped
under the director of national
intelligence also delivered a
riveting if implicit X-ray of
the changing nature of leadership
in Washington, where the White
House's once-commanding authority
over government has been smashed
but not replaced by any other
power center.
...The publication
of an unclassified version of
the NIE, which concludes that
Iran is "probably" not
working on a nuclear weapon at
this time, has triggered unintended
consequences. Iran's diplomatic
hand is strengthened, while foreign
diplomats and officials who have
pushed their governments to join
the U.S. campaign of sanctions
and international condemnation
are suddenly undermined. "We
will be exposed to a lot of criticism
at home now," one official
from the developing world glumly
told me shortly after the estimate
was issued.
|
Children
ask the world of Iranian mothers,
too...
WAND was started by a group of
women -- in truth, most of them
mothers. While many of us today
are not mothers, the fact is that
most of us still find loads of
motivation in caring for others:
children, friends, relatives,
animals.
We
value the nurturing that is really
only possible in peacetime. When
it's possible to thrive, grow,
share, love. War kills more than
soldiers, more than civilians.
It kills hope, generosity, humor.
The
prospect of military action on
Iran is chilling on so many counts.
As we take action here, it is
heartening to learn that women
and mothers are taking action
in Iran, as well.
From
the New
York Times:
“We,
mothers of peace, want to express
our deepest concerns over the
country’s critical situation,”
said the letter signed by 521
women, which was posted on www.motherspeace.blogfa.com
and other major political news
Web sites.
“We
are worried about the prices
that we and our children will
have to pay during a period
of such insecurity,” the
letter added.
It
is highly unusual for an Iranian
citizens’ group to question
publicly the country’s
nuclear policy and acknowledge
the effects of the economic
sanctions imposed by the United
Nations on people’s lives.
The group announced its formation
in November as a movement seeking
peace and freedom.
|
 |
Preventive
war? Preventive
action.
The
time to stop the next war is now.
While
Congress wrangles over funding
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
many believe that the administration
is considering undertaking yet
another military action on foreign
shores -- this time, in Iran.
This, despite the fact that the
situation in Iraq has clearly
shown that using force before
we have exhausted every other
alternative is foolish, deadly,
and counterproductive. |
|
WiLL
on the road, in the news, in the
know
Bringing
the lowdown on the federal budget
and the costs of war to state
capitols and state legislators...
- Arizona
state legislators were
invited to the WiLL budget briefing
at the State Capitol in Phoenix.
Our in-state hosts, Senator
Meg Burton-Cahill (below right)
and Representative Linda Lopez
(and their capable staff) welcomed
Senator Nan Orrock (below left)
and Christina Cernansky for
the briefing. Senator Burton-Cahill,
whose son is currently serving
in Iraq, underscored the importance
of understanding the policy
and spending decisions being
made in Washington.
- Colorado
legislators are preparing
to host a similar briefing,
focusing on the costs of war
to Coloradans, in January. We
appreciate the efforts of all
the women legislators who are
working with retired Senator
Dorothy Rupert, a National WAND
boardmember and
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