07/03/14 – Jodie Evans – The Scott Horton Show

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Thank you.
All right, you guys, welcome back to the show.
A little bit of a technical difficulty there with the Liberty Radio Network, but should be all fixed now.
Coming up, Ray McGovern on Ukraine and Adam Morrow, live from Cairo, Egypt, on the year anniversary of the counterrevolution there.
Right now we go to Jody Evans from Code Pink.
Welcome to the show, Jody, how are you doing?
Great.
Thanks, Scott.
Good, good.
Happy to have you on the show here.
And so now, of course, the big news is intervention in Iraq, 300 advisors has already turned into as many as 800 army and marines.
Apparently some of them will be flying helicopters and will be doing some fighting and combat forces, even according to the government official, quote unquote, combat forces being dispatched now to Iraq.
And so it looks like we're already headed down that slippery slope.
And I just wonder, can you please tell us what we're going to do about it?
I mean, I want to help.
I'm pointing fingers.
I'm just curious.
I know it's hard when Democrats are in power to get liberals really excited about this kind of thing, but we really don't want another Iraq war.
Nope, I'm going to actually tell you, I have never seen the progressive movement come together so quickly.
It was dizzying.
Yeah.
Yes.
And it was so heartening.
OK, tell me all the good news.
I'll be quiet and listen close.
And I can, you know, I can explain, you know, like from when we were out there all alone, I guess, Code Pink outside the White House in 2003, to, you know, putting our camp up to stop Syria bombing and being the only ones out there and then having people join us after.
On this one, we watched move on, credo, every organization be out and say no right away.
We watched 70 members of Congress come together in a matter of days on a bill that Obama has to come to Congress for authorization for Iraq, just like he did for Syria.
It moved through so fast.
It was not only in Congress, it was outside.
We've put together a rapid response team all across the country.
When it looks like something's starting to move that we're out there, we're already right now.
My team is outside the White House on drones.
You know what we get from inside the White House.
Don't get me wrong.
I, I, I meant to say in there that I know you guys are Code Pink are always hardcore no matter what, but I am pleasantly surprised to learn the rest.
I mean, Phyllis Bennis from Institute for Policy Studies has been on with all the organizations working on talking points.
Everybody's on the same line.
I have never felt this in the last 12 years and it's so heartening.
Now it doesn't mean we're going to be able to stop the White House, but the fact that the progressive movement, even with a Democrat in the White House, is just know that everybody over this last 10 years, 12 years gets, war is not the answer.
We have messed this place up.
We have to stop now.
And that you've got 70 members of Congress that came together lightning fast to say no.
I haven't seen that happen.
Yeah.
That's great.
So, you know what, the other thing we're working on at Code Pink, besides being outside the White House every day, besides working in Congress and going to protest at the different offices of people calling for war, like we've been protesting at McCain's office every day, we've put together a coalition of young people who are writing a proclamation that they're going to each one of these members' offices that want to go to war and protesting at those offices.
But the other side of that is, you know, for the last few weeks, we've really been using this as an opportunity to remind everyone why this is happening, what the Bush administration did, how they light a civil war.
We've pulled Ambassador Wilson out to start talking to different people who could tell the story of what happened before, including Matti and myself, who went to Iraq right before we invaded, who knew it was wrong.
All the people that marched.
We're trying to get that story out as much as possible.
And right now, we have the only lawsuit, not only nationally, but globally, against the Bush administration that's moving forward.
It's out of a San Francisco federal court.
You can look it up at the Code Pink website under our Justice for All campaign.
We're very excited about this.
I went to Brussels, the Iraq tribunal in Brussels with Inder Komar, who's the attorney on this, and it just inspired everyone.
Matter of fact, it inspired some of the countries representing the coalition of the willing to go back and sue the U.S. and the Bush administration for lying them into the coalition of the willing and the expenses they incurred for that.
So, you know, there's a lot happening both ways, both pushing back on the Obama administration.
And you know, until I take my last breath, I'm going to work to bring the Bush administration to justice.
And this case that we've got is amazing.
It's on the Nuremberg trial, and there was, you know, the judge said, are you willing to drink from this poison chalice, which is to be held accountable to the same scrutiny that we've held Germany accountable to, and we've failed on all counts.
The Bush administration has.
On the current crisis, Joy, let me ask you, is there a big demonstration plan where all different groups are going to show up with all their membership, hopefully?
Well, that's what I said, we have this rapid response team ready right now.
It's like, you don't want to pull it out before you've really got the mass and they can see what the target is.
And so that's what we've been working on in Congress is to get this bill forward.
And so that there can be this bill that says you have to come to Congress without authorization.
As soon as that got through, then we could say that Obama has violated his Congress, and then we could be in the streets, but we still, everything's still kind of, he's pussy footing around.
And until you can actually have a target, it's hard to get really a mass of people out, and we want to have that mass.
So if you go to the code pink.org, we have a petition you can sign as soon as all the organizations are moving together, and that's MoveOn, Credo, Avaaz, some of us, I mean, one without all the coalition members, one without war.
But we could target the president and the Congress at the same time, right?
And just say, stay out of Iraq in general.
And hey, by the way, Congress, you do something about it, right?
Right.
That's what we're doing.
Yeah.
And we're in the halls of Congress every, we've been in the halls of Congress every day.
But I mean, we could have a giant demonstration at the White House saying, you've already sent helicopters, you've already sent 800 guys, and that's 800 too many.
Well, and right now, the thing, the thing you need to do is look on the Rigel-Lee bill and see how many signatures they have.
Make sure your member of Congress is on there.
If they're not, pour calls into that member's office.
Right now, it's really, we have a stopgap.
We could get Congress to authorize no war like they did with Syria.
By the way, Jody, are any of the Ron Paul Republicans supporting this at all, Massey or Amash?
You know, I don't know.
That's a good question.
I'd have to look at the list myself.
I basically know that I have more pull with Democrats, so that's where I target myself.
Yeah, of course.
I let the Republicans work on their own.
The only thing we do with Republicans is go after them for saying, where's the answer here?
And they should know better.
They should know that like all the member's offices that we've been in, they're getting 99% calls again that, you know, don't go there, don't go there.
So, you know, what we need to do, and when you're making the calls, too, is we, we need to stop thinking that military weapons and war are the answer to this and, you know, no more weapon sales.
It's disgusting that Kerry has, is giving weapons to Egypt again while they're violating everyone's human rights there.
I mean, what they're doing in Egypt is insane, and the fact that Kerry goes there and recognizes the government and then decides to give them weapons and money again, it's just, and we're making this mess, and we have to keep holding our leaders accountable to it.
Yeah, well, and in this specific case, there's a great case to be made that they are more or less a stalemate.
That doesn't mean there's not going to be more fighting.
They're more or less a stalemate right now, and if we just dump a bunch of arms in there, then we throw the balance back into violence.
Well, and, you know, when I was in Iraq before we invaded, the Iraqis just said, please leave us alone, you know, and when did we become the policemen of the world, and haven't we yet looked in the mirror of that arrogance and seen the disasters we're creating?
Right.
Yeah, you know, I have to admit, I'm pleasantly surprised, even in the media coverage, of people saying, jeez, I don't know, I think we kind of have to admit that it's sort of the invasion of 03's fault that all this is going on and that kind of thing.
And of course, you know, the McCains are always still going to attack from the right as loud as they can, but so we need a really big noise from the peace movement so that it's made clear to those with power that the real politics on this are that the American people who are the ones with the votes are dead set against this, and they better not, in fact, they better get out in front of our parade before it runs them over.
So right now, keep those calls coming, sign every petition you can, because then you'll be in the loop for the rapid response.
Yep.
All right.
Thank you so much for your efforts and for your time on the show today, Jodi.
I really appreciate it.
Thanks, Scott.
That's Jodi Evans, everybody, from Code Pink.
The website is Code Pink 4 Peace, the number 4 Peace, or just search Code Pink, and they have all of their actions and media alerts and all the ways that you can participate there on the website.
And I do hope that people will call their congressman.
And yes, I know that in some circumstances it can be futile or worse to do so.
And I'm a libertarian anarchist, and I ain't got much respect for democracy either.
On the other hand, it can matter.
There are historical examples of when it really mattered that the phone just kept ringing and ringing and ringing, and whatever issue it was, the people were against it and got it killed.
And Syria last summer is one example.
It's worth your time and effort to make some calls.
Come on.
Get your congressman on board.
There's already a thing in Congress, she said.
Hey, Al Scott Horton here.
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