A new nationwide antiwar campaign called Iraq/Recession has been launched to highlight the relationship between spending on the Iraq War--now at $497 billion-and the potential for an economic recession here in the United States. According to a press release announcing the campaign, the groups involved--MoveOn.org, the Service Employees International Union, VoteVets.org, USAction, the Center for American Progress, and Americans United for Change--have pledged twenty million dollars to spend on the campaign. The release further says the campaign "...will include paid advertisements, lobbying Congress not to pass blank check funding bills, urging Congressional action to bar President Bush from making a long term commitment to Iraq that could tie the hands of the next president, and campaigning in key Senate states and House districts."

However, like the Iraq Summer campaign that came to West Michigan last summer, the primary focus of the campaign will be assigning blame for the Iraq War on Republicans and absolving Democrats of responsibility. There is no indication that the campaign will apply the same scrutiny to Democrats--many of whom initially voted for the war and continue to vote for funding it--as it does to Republicans. The campaign has gained the support of former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, who said in a conference call announcing the campaign, "The American people are going to have a very clear choice this fall -- a Democrat who will bring this thing to an end ... and Senator John McCain who will continue the war." However, there is no indication that the Democratic Party candidates will end the war and indeed, they have supported the ongoing occupation. The groups will spend an initial $5 million targeting McCain and four Republican senators who are up for reelection this year. There was nothing said about how it will lobby Congress.

As for how citizens can get involved, the Iraq/Recession campaign is calling for people to write letters to their local newspapers highlighting the following points:

* "The recession is going to force states to cut back their budgets. Most likely, the cuts are going to affect the services that working families need and depend on."

* "Meanwhile, the war is costing Americans more than $338 million a day. That money could be spent to help out the folks who're hurting most now. For less than what we're spending on the war, we could pay for affordable housing for hundreds of thousands of families, healthcare for children or scholarships to help folks pay for education."

* "Gas prices are close to double what they were before the war began. The cost of oil is still hovering around $100 barrel."

* "We're borrowing $343 million every day to finance the war in Iraq. 5 Our skyrocketing debt will be a bigger and bigger drag on the economy--slowing recovery and burdening future generations."

Finally, the campaign will not challenge the underlying assumptions of the bipartisan support for war. Most notably, it does not challenge--and nor do the Democrats that it supports--the massive military budget. Similarly, it is supportive of US "leadership"--or dominance--in the world by assuming that it is the responsibility of the United States to establish "real security in the world."