Medea Benjamin: George Bush and CODEPINK: Women for Peace

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/02/4968/

George Bush and CODEPINK: Women for Peace
by Medea Benjamin


On November 1, while CODEPINK was outside the Heritage Foundation protesting the appearance of George Bush, Bush himself was inside talking about CODEPINK. “When it comes to funding our troops, some in Washington should spend more time responding to the warnings of terrorists like Osama bin Laden and the requests of our commanders on the ground and less time responding to the demands of MoveOn.org bloggers and Code Pink protesters,” he said.

It’s curious that Bush, who once declared that “Osama bin Laden isn’t going to determine how we defend ourselves” wants Congress to pay more attention to Osama bin Laden than groups like MoveOn and CODEPINK that represent the majority of Americans.

snip//

So while the Republicans are trying to falsely associate the Democratic leadership with CODEPINK, we’ve come a long way since the days when the Bush Administration refused to even acknowledge the anti-war movement. When we mobilized millions of people out in the streets on February 15, 2003, in the largest anti-war rallies in history, Bush dismissed us a “focus group” and charged ahead with his war plans.

Now, with less than 30 percent of Americans supporting Bush’s policy in Iraq, the Administration’s repeated references to CODEPINK and MoveOn is an admission of the power of the millions of dissenting Americans who are pressuring Congress, marching in the streets, supporting peace candidates and otherwise pushing to end this war and stop a new one with Iran.

The greater national recognition of CODEPINK has produced its own backlash. Conservative groups are now coming out every Wednesday night in Washington DC to picket our CODEPINK DC house and have launched a campaign to try to get us evicted. The hate mail and violent phone calls have increased. The police on Capitol Hill are cracking down on CODEPINK activists and judges are issuing us “stay-away orders” to keep us away from the Capitol. Some of us have discovered our names on an FBI criminal database and have found ourselves banned from entering Canada.

This is precisely the time for CODEPINK and other groups to step up their activities, and for new people to come forward to help. Remember the prescient words of Mahatma Gandhi: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” We’re now in the stage where they are fighting us. We’re anxiously awaiting the stage when we win.