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For Immediate Release
February, 27 2009, 02:08pm EDT
Contact:
Email:,press@veteransforpeace.org
Veterans' Group Says Leaving 50,000 Troops to Control Iraq Is No 'Withdrawal'
NATIONWIDE
A national veterans' organization today objected to calling President Obama's announcement on Iraq a "withdrawal," adding that keeping troops there and Afghanistan will "put the nail in the coffin of America's economy."
Veterans For Peace, referring to several published reports that the Obama plan will leave 50,000 or more troops in Iraq, and pointing to the buildup already underway in Afghanistan, warned that such policies will have the same effect on the new President as the Vietnam War did on Lyndon Johnson's plans for the Great Society.
"I really believe President Obama wants to do good things for the country," said VFP president, Mike Ferner, "but if he continues on this course he's charted, his hopes are guaranteed to founder on the shoals of war. This way lies disaster. For all our sakes, I hope he reconsiders," said VFP president, Mike Ferner.
The 58 year-old former Navy Hospital Corpsman added, "Besides the suffering and death caused by prolonging these wars, America simply can no longer afford the cost of empire. Unfortunately, that's exactly what these policies do. Their purpose is to control an entire region of the world and its resources. If you look at history, it's clear the longterm outlook for empires is not very pleasant."
Ferner concluded that "Barack Obama became president in part because millions of voters were sick of these wars and wanted them stopped, period. Saying that only 'non-combat' troops will be left after 19 months is just sleight of hand so we can keep tens of thousands of soldiers in Iraq and send thousands more to Afghanistan."
Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Our network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars.
(314) 725-6005LATEST NEWS
Progressive Challenger Katie Wilson Elected Mayor of Seattle
"The Zohran moment extends beyond NYC," said one organizer.
Nov 13, 2025
With the help of an "army of grassroots volunteers" and the support of Seattle's working-class neighborhoods, progressive candidate Katie Wilson was named the winner of the city's mayoral election on Wednesday night, beating corporate-backed Democratic Mayor Bruce Harrell after a campaign that focused heavily on how unaffordable Seattle is for many families—including Wilson's.
Wilson, who rents a one-bedroom apartment with her husband and young child and spoke on the campaign trail about how her parents have helped her pay for childcare, was elected after taking a 1,976-vote lead over Harrell, with just 1,320 ballots remaining.
The Seattle Times called the race for Wilson and reported that it was unclear whether the close race would go to a recount, and Harrell said he would address voters on Thursday.
"Ahead by almost 2,000 votes, we now believe that we're in an insurmountable position," said Wilson in a social media post on Wednesday night. "We're so grateful to all the volunteers who have powered this grassroots campaign to victory. We look forward to hearing the mayor's address to the city tomorrow."
The mayoral election results were mirrored by other municipal elections in Seattle, with the Times reporting a "progressive sweep" of City Hall as voters elected left-leaning nonprofit leader Dionne Foster as City Council president and progressive challenger Erika Evans as city attorney.
Wilson's victory also proved wrong the commentators who had dismissed New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's victory over corporate-backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as an aberration that would not be replicated outside of the solidly Democratic city.
Wilson has never held public office and is the co-founder of the Transit Riders Union, where she has directed "successful campaigns for better transit, higher wages, stronger renter protections, and more affordable housing."
The New York Times reported that she was driven to run for mayor earlier this year, after voters overwhelmingly backed a ballot measure to fund a new public housing agency with an “excess compensation” tax, targeting employers that pay more than $1 million to any employee. Harrell had opposed the measure, urging the City Council to use existing budgets to pay for the agency.
Like democratic socialist Mamdani, Wilson focused her mayoral campaign heavily on the need to make Seattle more affordable for working families. She easily beat Harrell in the Democratic primary after winning the support of working-class neighborhoods across the city, while Harrell won votes in "expensive waterfront neighborhoods," as labor-focused media organization More Perfect Union said in a video about the race.
BREKAING: Katie Wilson has been elected Seattle’s next mayor. The progressive challenger has taken an insurmountable lead in the vote count, and defeated the establishment candidate. pic.twitter.com/15Qypd6Oyz
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) November 13, 2025
The race was "a referendum on inequality and affordability in Seattle, where the richest 5th rake in $345,000 per household and the poorest 5th bring in just under $19,000," said More Perfect Union. "Ordinary working people in Seattle are struggling to keep up with consumer prices, which are 13% higher than the national average, and housing prices, which are 50% higher than the national average."
Wilson has called to expand the city's social housing program by using union labor to build thousands more mixed-income units that would serve as a public option for housing. She has also pledged to strengthen renter protections and end algorithmic price-fixing by corporate landlords.
Like Mamdani, she has called for the establishment of city-owned grocery stores that would help keep costs down.
As the votes continued to be counted earlier this week, housing justice organizer Daniel Denvir said a victory for Wilson would show "the Zohran moment extends beyond NYC."
Daniel Nichanian of Bolts added that Wilson's victory "is a West Coast companion to Mamdani’s as a statement municipal victory for the left."
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Tlaib Says 'Enough Democrats Chose to Roll Over' as Trump Signs Bill to End Shutdown
"The American people want us to fight back, not cave to Donald Trump for absolutely nothing in return," said Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Nov 13, 2025
US President Donald Trump signed legislation to end the longest government shutdown in the nation's history late Wednesday after Republicans pushed the funding measure through the House with the support of six Democrats.
The 222 to 209 House vote marked the feeble end of Democrats' effort to force Republicans and Trump to back an extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. The standoff effectively concluded over the weekend, when eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus—with the tacit blessing of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—broke ranks and endorsed a deal to reopen the government.
The Democrats who voted with House Republicans on Wednesday were Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, and Tom Suozzi of New York.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus—which unanimously voted against the funding measure on Wednesday—said in a statement that the deal all but cements premium hikes for tens of millions of Americans, as it lacks any concrete plan to extend the ACA subsidies.
"Premiums will double for an additional 20 million Americans under this so-called deal. Tens of thousands of people will die unnecessarily every year because of these extreme Medicaid cuts and skyrocketing healthcare costs," said Tlaib. "Our for-profit healthcare system is already broken, and instead of holding the line and fighting for healthcare as a human right, enough Democrats chose to roll over and make this affordability crisis worse."
Tlaib dismissed the Senate GOP's pledge to hold a vote on the ACA tax credits next month as "a worthless stunt that has no chance of being signed into law—if it’s even taken up."
“The American people want us to fight back, not cave to Donald Trump for absolutely nothing in return," said the Michigan Democrat. "Working people are already struggling and now an increase in premiums will make life worse for our families."
Tlaib offered her grim view of the material consequences of the shutdown deal as some Democrats tried to put a positive spin on the standoff, arguing that it succeeded in placing healthcare at the center of the national debate and laying bare Republicans' cruelty and utter lack of policy solutions.
"The silver lining of that agreement is that the issue doesn’t disappear," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who opposed the deal.
Trump predictably wasted no time declaring victory and urging voters to punish Democrats for the shutdown in the 2026 midterms, even though Republicans control the government. Polling released earlier this month found that a majority of US voters blamed Trump and the GOP for the shutdown.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said following Wednesday's vote that "the public rightly recognizes that Trump and congressional Republicans are to blame for the longest government shutdown in history, exploding healthcare costs, and the cruel and needless punishment of 42 million Americans receiving nutrition support."
"The American people stood with Democrats as we stood firm and fought for Americans' right to healthcare," said Omar. "Over the past two months, Progressive Caucus members sounded the alarm on behalf of Americans in districts across the country who won’t be able to afford their insulin or chemotherapy due to the Republicans' healthcare crisis."
"As this shutdown ends," she added, "we are more committed than ever to the fight for healthcare as a human right."
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Grijalva Signs Discharge Petition to Force Epstein Files Vote Right After Being Sworn In
The congresswoman called House Speaker Mike Johnson's delay a politically motivated "abuse of power" and reiterated her support for releasing the documents, declaring that "justice cannot wait another day."
Nov 12, 2025
After a weekslong delay that US House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to blame on the government shutdown, Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn in on Wednesday and swiftly became the crucial 218th signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on releasing files related to deceased sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Johnson (R-La.) has denied that he pushed off administering the oath of office to Grijalva (D-Ariz.) to postpone a vote requiring the US Department of Justice to release its files on Epstein, who was friends with Republican President Donald Trump. However, critics, including many discharge petition signatories, don't believe him.
Addressing the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Grijalva called Johnson's delay a politically motivated "abuse of power."
The newest congresswoman also thanked the survivors of Epstein's abuse who were seated in the gallery and confirmed that she would sign the discharge petition immediately, declaring that "justice cannot wait another day."
Working Families Party national press secretary Ravi Mangla said in a Wednesday statement: "Congratulations to WFP champion Adelita Grijalva on her swearing-in today—after weeks of stalling by Speaker Mike Johnson. Not only will families in southern Arizona finally have representation in Congress, Americans are getting a proven fighter who's ready to hit the ground running. And one of the first orders of business will be holding Jeffrey Epstein's accomplices accountable by forcing the release of the files."
Demand Progress has led a campaign that's resulted in Americans sending around 570,000 messages and making more than 8,000 calls asking Congress to release the files. A senior policy adviser to the group, Cavan Kharrazian, said Wednesday that "every new revelation, every denial from the White House, and every deflection from congressional leaders is a reason why we should just clear the air and release the Epstein files."
Noting Epstein's "personal and business connections to presidents, prime ministers, royalty, and even foreign governments," Kharrazian argued that "there is no good reason to keep the information that our government has about this under wraps, except naked self-interest," and urged all House members to support the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The bill is spearheaded by Congressmen Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). Three other Republicans—Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Nancy Mace (S.C.), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.)—joined Democrats in signing the discharge petition to force a vote on the legislation.
"Thank you to the brave survivors who made the possible. Let's bring it to the floor for a vote!" Khanna wrote on social media on Wednesday, celebrating Grijalva's oath and signature.
Massie said that "in spite of a last-ditch effort by the president to foil the motion, and Speaker Johnson's propaganda, the discharge petition I have been leading just succeeded! In December, the entire House of Representatives will vote on releasing the Epstein files."
Before Grijalva officially joined the chamber on Wednesday, the New York Times reported that top Trump administration officials met with Boebert in the White House Situation Room, and Trump spoke with her by phone. According to the newspaper, the president had also been reaching out to Mace, but they had not connected.
By Wednesday evening, Politico reported that "Republicans are bracing for a significant chunk of the conference" to vote for Khanna and Massie's bill once it hits the floor. GOP Congressmen Don Bacon (Neb.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), and Rob Bresnahan (Pa.) all suggested that they would support it.
While the discharge petition's success set up a December vote, Johnson announced Wednesday night that he would speed up the process by holding a vote on releasing the files next week.
There were files released throughout Wednesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Initially, Democrats on the panel released a few emails from Epstein. In 2011, he wrote to now-imprisoned co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump was a "dog that hasn't barked" and "spent hours at my house" with a victim of sex trafficking. In 2019, Epstein wrote to author Michael Wolff that Trump "knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."
The panel's ranking member, Congressman Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), said in a statement: "The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover. These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president."
"The Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately," he added. "The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims."
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday afternoon: "The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they'll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects. Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap."
"The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk—and they should pay a fair price," he added. "There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!"
Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee responded with a document dump, releasing 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein's estate.
This article was updated after House Speaker Mike Johnson announced plans to hold a vote next week.
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