Wampum

This came in yesterday's mail. It is unusual in that the candidate is writing directly to the recipients, and for a policy end that the candidate obviously feels is more important than just winning an expenses paid vacation to Washington City to watch the adults run or ruin the country.

December 4, 2007
Time to Speak Out Against War with Iran

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Yesterday, American intelligence agencies released a report that should encourage all Americans who are seeking to prevent war against Iran. The newly released National Intelligence Estimate, which is the consensus view of all 16 American intelligence agencies, stated that Iran discontinued its nuclear weapons program back in 2003, and that the program is still halted today.

Newspaper reports today described the NIE as a "setback" for Bush Administration policy towards Iran - but shouldn't the administration celebrate the discovery that Iran is not making nuclear weapons as good news?

Unfortunately, the Bush administration and others are more interested in regime change in Iran than they are in preventing another war. Indeed, the administration policy seems to seek war with Iran - just as it did with Iraq - and anything that might limit tensions is seen as a "setback."

In a meeting of top British officials in July 2002 recorded in the now famous Downing Street Memo, a British official who had recently been to Washington reported to Tony Blair and others that "facts were being fixed around the policy" or going to war in Iraq.

After the war began, we learned that many of the "facts" we had been told about Iraq were false. Now, with Iran, some of the overheated rhetoric has already been proven to be false - but it remains to be seen whether this information will stop those who are bent on another war.

The time for Americans who seek peace to speak out is now. We must speak strongly and clearly that the United States should not go to war with Iran, and that the current conflict with Iran can and must be resolved diplomatically. It is not enough to say that the President must get congressional approval before taking military action - we must demand that Congress not give the president authorization to attack
Iran as it did with Iraq.

I recently signed a petition by the national organization Peace Action, which has a chapter here in Maine, to Condolezza Rice and congressional leaders demanding a peaceful solution to the conflict with Iran and opposing military action. I encourage everyone who supports such a course to sign Peace Action's petition as well.

We must be absolutely clear that diplomacy has to be at the center of our relationship with Tehran - especially because we must work with Iraq's neighbors to promote stability in Iraq, a crucial part of ending US military involvement there. I do not support the US Senate resolution that called the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a "terrorist organization" - such a move would only heighten tensions between our two nations. Similarly, I do not support the effort nationwide or in Maine to divest public funds from countries that do business with Iran.

I do support a strong diplomatic effort with Iran - and a broader US foreign policy commitment to peace, diplomacy, and disarmament. While we demand that Iran not develop nuclear weapons, we must also speed up the reduction of nuclear weapons in the United States, Russia, and elsewhere, with the eventual goal of eliminating nuclear weapons throughout the world.

Real security will be possible if our country commits itself to being a force in support of peace and human rights in the world. I have been committed to peace since I demonstrated against the Vietnam war in college 35 years ago right up through my role in helping to establish Legislators for Ending the War last year, and I will continue my commitment to peace in Washington if elected as your congressman.

Thank you for all you do for peace.
Sincerely,

Michael Brennan for Congress

We know Michael, as well as Chellie, Mark and Ethan. There's only one candidate in the primary race for the ME-01 we don't know personally. All but Ethan and Adam would be good choices for most of the issues that motivate the MDP primary voter base, but there is one issue, one problem, that fundamentally distinguishes them. Michael is the candidate most likely to decline to cooperate with a national security regime run amok, the candidate most likely to say its just politics, Republican politics.

Did you notice he didn't ask for money? He just asked for a few minutes of attention, and whatever reflection the reader can manage, on peace in a time of illegal war. His Act Blue link is here.