Mike Gravel Says End The War By Labor Day

Mike Gravel spoke this morning at Washington’s National Press Club. Anti-war activist’s Code Pink and Veterans for Peace along with Cindy Sheehan all showed up for his talk. He is calling for Congressional action to end the war, and has proposed daily votes in the Senate until the president’s veto of a withdrawal date is overridden. He also wants to propose a law that would make it a felony to not follow his withdrawal plans. “I have devised a very tough law. It’s a withdraw law. And this tough law clearly says that if the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Treasury fail to obey this law, they commit a felony, and the penalty for committing this felony is five years in jail without the possibility of parole,” Gravel said. While he is willing to charge the President with a felony, impeachment is not on his plate. “I just don’t think those are very good tactics,” Gravel said. “Impeachment will come, don’t worry about that. Just concentrate on one thing at a time, people losing their lives. So when you use your energy working on impeachment, they’ll still be dying.” On his plan Gravel says, “It’s guaranteed to work; to end the war by Labor Day and to have our troops home, all of our troops home, by Christmas.” The anti-war crowd of about 40 liked that idea. Sheehan asked Gravel about a third party Gravel – Kucinich ticket, but Gravel dismissed that idea saying he has no plans of losing the Democratic nomination. “I will get the Democratic nomination,” he declared . After their little meeting at the press club, the crowd marched from the White House to the Capital building. They could call this Gravel’s ‘I have a dream’ speech.
Alan Cosgrove