Vic Wulsin’s and Sherrod Brown’s ‘Timetable’ Friends Really Want Immediate Withdrawal from Iraq

The only thing the Iraq Vets Against the War (IVAW) don’t say is “redeploy to Okinawa” in the first two things they call for:

• Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq;
• Reparations for the pillaging and destruction of Iraq so that ordinary Iraqi people can control their own lives and future.

But wait, you say. IVAW didn’t endorse Vic Wulsin for Second District Congresswoman, Iraq War Veterans for Progress (IVFP; the word “war” is not in the official name) did. IVFP has also endorsed Sherrod Brown; that’s two Ohio candidates of IVFP’s total of five endorsements.

Navy vet Large Bill explains the linkage between the two groups:

IVFP does not openly call for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. However, IVAW which is more transparent about wanting to abandon the mission in Iraq appears to be closely related to IVFP. These organizations seem to have considerable cross membership. Tim Goodrich is the Executive Director of IVFP as well as being a founder of the IVAW. Charles Anderson ….. is a member of both organizations, works for the Brown for Senate campaign, and is a regular poster at the far left blog Huffington Post.

There are at least four other IVFP members, including most of those working with the organization’s five endorsed candidates, who are also in IVAW. Large Bill also points out the absurdity of IVFP’s “renounce pre-emptive war” position in a post-9/11 world.

The larger point is that Sherrod Brown and Vic Wulsin are brandishing endorsements by the more-reasonable appearing IVFP, when in reality the people in IVFP want the immediate withdrawal advocated by IVAW.

You doubt? Two of IVFP’s non-military “timetable” pretenders at the group’s About page are Daniel “Pentagon Papers” Ellsberg, who showed the rest of the country how to be a successful turncoat during the Vietnam War, and Barbara Lee, the only congressperson to vote against authorizing the use of force against Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Give either of those truth serum and they would say “Timetable, Schmimetable. Get out now!”

So either Brown and Wulsin believe in a timetable for withdrawal and have been fooled by the IVFP/IVAW subterfuge, or they know about the subterfuge and are determined to fool the voters. Neither possibility says anything positive about either candidate.

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UPDATE: Yes, I’m perfectly aware of the legal distinction between the IVFP (a PAC) and IVAW. There’s also a legal distinction between Procter & Gamble, to pick one example, and its PAC, that most would agree doesn’t mean much philosophically. Why, except for sbuterfuge, would there be a fundamental difference on withdrawal from Iraq between IVAW and IVFP?