Antiwar America

"This is what democracy looks like" chanted twenty-four antiwar demonstrators as they were arrested outside Toledo's Navy and Air Force recruitment office on the day George W. Bush announced that he was done with diplomacy. On the eve of war, American democracy was on display on the streets of Toledo, Traverse City, San Francisco, New York and dozens of other US cities. Demonstrators lit candles, marched and engaged in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, and communities continued to pass "Cities for Peace" resolutions.

But it could not be found in the Capitol in Washington. "The Administration, by design, has failed to level with the American people about the risks, the potential casualties on all sides, the threats to US citizens, the costs of this war. And Congress has let them get away with it," said former Maine Congressman Tom Andrews, now national director of the Win Without War coalition. "The failure of Congress to engage on this issue in the last few days, when questioning of the Administration is most likely to be closely watched and to have an impact, is infuriating. It flies in the face of everything we know about how a democracy should work."

Frustration with Congressional inaction made it all the way to the steps of the Capitol, where family members of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks were arrested in protests where they begged Congress to prevent the Administration from launching a new war in the name of their lost loved ones.

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