Comment by Leonard Clark

Entered on: 3/9/2007 3:18:13 AM

Today, in the Arizona Republic our governor, Janet Napolitano was quoted as saying that she's not ready to advocate for troop withdrawal. It was on the front page of the Arizona Republic newspaper (3-8-07). She also made statements like: there is progress in Iraq and our troops are getting things done.

I want to know why she as political leader for the Democratic party of Arizona is finally making a public statement on Iraq when for many months and years we (the citizens of this state and country) have been dreaming of the day that she would take a stand against the illegal occupation of Iraq and that we would see her with us standing together arm and arm in front of Bloody John McCain's office or Jon Hyl Kyl's office protesting as right wing wackos and monarchists shouted profanities at us and tried to hit us with their cars.

On top of it all, the members of the state Democratic party of Arizona voted in 2005 for our troops to withdrawal from Iraq, now it can be said that this was only a symbolic resolution on the behalf of the Democratic party of Arizona but one thing this official resolution wasn't: some internet poll or unofficial survey. This was an official resolution for a troop withdrawal. Janet Napolitano is the leader of our party in Arizona, so these direct quotations are in effect direct contradiction to what the membership of this party said in 2005: Withdraw our troops from Iraq. The elites seem to have gone along with this resolution as type of patronization of the progressives in this party.

Furthermore, it will be said that our governor Janet Napolitano was not the only one to be invited to Iraq by Secretary of Defense Gates but, I have seen in the press where she met behind closed doors with officials of the Bush administration supposedly just to discuss solutions for fighting fires in Arizona. But, Janet's coddling up to right wingers in Bush's administration represents the danger we all face when we eventually reach the highest levels of power in politics: that we will associate so much with our ideological opponents that we start to become like them.

These public statements by the governor are a symbolic slap in the face to those in this party (the Democratic party of Arizona) and those independents and progressives who know that George Bush is an evil and sick tyrant. Why else, after all of our entreaties to her to stand with us would her first major public statements not be against the illegal occupation of Iraq but instead for it. she made statements to our reporters such as: She is not yet ready for a troop withdrawal from Iraq? When I recieved the email from Mr. Wade today from the Arizona Democratic Party of Arizona that governor Napolitano visited Iraq, the statements that our governor made regarding her non-support for an American troop withdrawal that she was quoted as making on the front page of the Arizona Republic today were not included. This is not appreciated. We progressives in this party are not children to be patronized or laughed at. Just like the way Bush's people laughed at the fundamentalist in his party, whose support he needed (behind their backs and behind closed doors) as being ignorant and simple minded.

For those of you who say we are being unfair to our Arizona governor Janet Napolitano and that she is being quoted out of context, we say that she is one of the most politically savvy and uncanny politicians and that she does not make "loose statements". For those of us who have watched her rise to power in Arizona, we have known of her over powering ambition to always put the advancement of her political career as her top priority.

One must realize that she is a product of the Hillary group and that she was schooled in their methods (rightly or wrongly) when she was sent out here to Arizona years ago by President Clinton when he came to power . It is no accident that she eerily similar to Hillary in her political strategies and her public stances on the Illegal Occupation of Iraq.

But you know what? When many of us know human beings are actually being murdered (American soldiers and citiizens of the world) for a lie (the Occupation of Iraq) we have to sacrifice if necessary our political careers and save lives and not leastly save this Republic from Fascism. Political careers must come second. But, I am afraid that this political sacrifice is to much to ask the governor and the elites in this party who hold stances on the Occupation similar to hers. Why not triangulate and use the blood of American soldiers (like John McCain is doing) to win the next election?

Why else would our governor make such grievous statements and symbolically rub the progressives wounds in salt by not just staying silent but incredibly now making statements that support more killing of American soldiers and civilians in Iraq? Is the Senate position now held by John McCain now that important. This may seem naive of me but why does Machivelli's ghost now seem to run the governor's mind and the minds of other elites in this party?

We activist have had to sacrifice everything, including our political chances in this party because at the end of the day and at the end of our of lives we know that we stood for Right with my fellow brother and sister progressive activist to bring home our American soldiers and fight for the survival of this Republic. What a shallow life to always lust for political power at the cost of human lives.

I ask the governor of this state (Arizona) to either retract her statement about not standing for an American troop withdrawal from Iraq or that she states that she is for an American troop withdrawal in the very near future from Iraq.

Since we know that Napolitano is a political calculator who carefully takes no chances as to not be seen as standing with the progressives who advocate for getting our troops out of Iraq, we can also calculate that her advisors have told her that the progressives in this party do not hold much power in the Democratic party of Arizona (as they believe was demonstrated by the party election last January of a state chair that progressives fought against). But, the governor should be careful because progressives in this party hold more power and influence than she probably believes. If it follows that she and advisors believe that we progressives in this party do not hold much power, she and they probably believe that if we left the party it would cause no harm to their centrist republican view of the Democratic party.

In fact, it could shrewdly be concieved that if we progressives were pushed out of the party (purged) , the DNC theme of the party would take complete control of the Democratic party in Arizona . To this, I state to you my fellow activists DO NOT let them push us out of the party for that is exactly what they want, for then like the rest of the country they could consolidate and incorporate their DNC philosophy over the Democratic party of Arizona.

I am deeply dissappointed and disheartened because although we could not get the governor to come out and openly protest or publicly stand against the continued killing of our American soldiers I never expected our governor Napolitano to come out so arrogantly and brazenly advocate for the continued presence of American troops in Iraq by stating that she doesn't believe they should be withdrawn yet, as she was quoted in the Arizona Republic today.

I hope the governor and other elites in this party prove me wrong and come out tommorrow publicly by stating openly that they are against the Iraq Occupation and therefore put their petty political ambitions second and the lives of our Americans soldiers first. We could expect this from Republicans and Monarchist but not those elites who run the Democratic party. I apoligize to all of those elites in the Democratic party who have come out publicly against the occupation of Iraq, There are such leaders as Mr. Alfredo Guiterrez who stand for what is right and join in our protest even to the point of getting arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.

It is very easy now for well known politicians to go to the Martin Luther King Celebrations that are held every January and smile for the cameras but would they have stood arm in arm wit Dr. King when he was also a political outcast from the elite of this nation? We need the leadership of men like Dr. King who was savagely attacked and finally murdered for his courageous stand for what was right.

So now I ask: Governor Napolitano are you for or against the Illegal Occupation of Iraq? I have to ask this question because for all intents and purposes today you took a stand for the Illegal Occupation of Iraq and therefore indirect support of that murderous king and tyrant George Bush. So this is not an unfair question to ask you because we activist put our lives and careers on the line all the time by taking public stances against the Iraq War and for others to state that since you hold an elite position in the Democratic party as precluding you from taking a stance for or against the Iraq War therefore is no excuse. Our fellow Americans are dying for a lie! Please do not take the flip flopping stance of John McCain or the Fascist stance of Jon Kyl.

Where are you govenor? We need your support not your opposition.

Leonard Clark Persian Gulf/ Iraq War III Vet

Chair of the John McCain Recall Committee
contact 623-423-6300 email: leonardclark385@hotmail.com

3-8-07