Groups That Oppose Only Republican Wars: Take 2

By David Swanson

Whether an organization opposes a war is not simply a yes or no question. Does it profess opposition when cornered and asked, or does it go all out organizing events, phone calls, press conferences, and civil disobedience? Is the organization a media outlet with multiple views? Does it oppose wars but muddle the issue with unhelpful amendments and rhetoric? How much opposition amounts to opposition?

Nonetheless, it has become clear that many groups opposed wars in significant ways when Bush was president and have not done so since. Additionally, the coalition that opposed the "emergency" war funding bill last year seems to have shrunk considerably by the time this year's "emergency" war escalation bill came around. It's not too late to change that, and most of last year's war opponents jumped on with a statement at the last moment. That may happen again in the coming days.

Of course, some groups are larger than others, some have done more than others, and most of the best ones have suffered from reduced funding and membership ever since Captain Peace Prize was elected. Some groups, like MoveOn.org, only opposed Republican war supporters even when they did oppose wars, meaning the switch to effectively supporting wars was not as stark a one as it might sound. But many groups, while losing resources, have maintained a principled position against war and done what they could with available resources, while others have not. Also, I don't know everything, and some group may have taken significant useful steps that I'm unaware of. All additions and any corrections sent to david at davidswanson dot org will be posted at: http://warisacrime.org/peacegroups Only national groups will be included, not because they are more important but because I don't have time to add local ones.

1. Organizations that opposed wars when Bush was president but don't now:
Campaign for America's Future, the Center for American Progress, DailyKos, Democracy for America, Moveon.org, National Organization for Women, Open Left, the Out of Iraq Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, the Network of Spiritual Progressives, Talking Points Memo, True Majority.

2. Organizations that still opposed war funding in 2009 can be found here. I had originally listed here groups that did not seem to be pushing as hard against the funding this year as last year. I've removed that list because so many groups objected or assumed I was claiming they were actively promoting war. But there was a major coalition actively engaged a year ago in trying to block war funding, sending out a stream of Emails, holding events, generating intense lobbying of Congress. There are many, many other worthy anti-war activities, including countering recruitment, educating students, trying to bring the National Guard home, etc., etc. I'm just not writing about those very worthy efforts at the moment. The coalition last year was organized around a whiplist at FireDogLake, a blog that still posts blogs opposing war funding, but which is not actively lobbying. Moving FireDogLake and lots of other organizations to Group 3 below does their peaceful philosophy justice but fails to communicate that anything has changed since last year.

In fact, many of the groups below have done less this year than last year to try to block the war funding, while others have done more. I'm not going to invite the storm of complaints that would arise from any attempt to rank who's done the most, and yet I think it is worth stressing that collectively we've done less -- at least so far.

3. Organizations still opposing war escalation funding now (at least a little bit):
AfterDowningStreet / WarIsACrime.org, Alternet, The American Friends Service Committee, American Homeless Society, The Backbone Campaign, Brave New Films / Rethink Afghanistan, BuzzFlash, Campaign Corner: A Home for Progressive Populist Candidates, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, CODE PINK, Consumers for Peace, Democrats.com, The Democratic Activist, Down With Tyranny, End US Wars, FireDogLake, Global Exchange, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Global Peace, Green Change, Iraq Veterans Against the War, JobsForAfghans, Just Foreign Policy, Justice Through Music, Liberty Tree, MichaelMoore.com, Military Families Speak Out, Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), The Nation, National Education Association Peace and Justice Caucus, Peace Action, Peace Majority Report, Progressive America Rising, Progressive Democrats of America, Progressive Push, Proposition One Campaign, The Rag Blog, TheRealNews.com, TruthDig, United for Peace and Justice, US Labor Against the War, Velvet Revolution, Veterans for Peace, Voters for Peace, Win Without War, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, World Can't Wait, the Young Turks.