Monday, November 6, 2006

A vote on the Iraq war

By Michael Schwartz
Asia Times

"What's at stake

As in 2004, there is no mystery about what the voters think when it comes to this election: it is a referendum on Bush administration policies in which unhappiness over the war comes first, second and third.

And this is why, no matter what the Democrats do afterward, the 2006 mid-term elections whose results we will all be anxiously watching on Tuesday are so important. If the Democrats prevail, however narrowly, against a world of massively gerrymandered seats, Republican finances, blitzes of dirty ads, the presidential "bully pulpit" and well-planned campaigns of voter suppression, US - as well as world - public opinion will interpret it as a repudiation of Bush administration war policy.

And this will become a mandate for those who oppose these policies to speak and act ever more forcefully. With or without Democratic Party leadership, this added momentum might even make a difference."

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