Volume Seven, Number 5                                     What ElseYou Need To Know                            June 5, 2008

 

War, in the context of terrorism, should be front and center for the months leading up to the November elections

With Vietnam War p.o.w. Senator John McCain heading up the Republican ticket and anti-war, anti-military senator Barak Obama at the top of the Democrat ticket, war will be front and center you can be sure. If it is not in the context of global threats, terrorism, and military preparedness, then the discussion will be nothing more than an emotional exercise likely to enflame tempers and solve nothing.

We can see this right here in Pleasanton. Mr. Fred Norman and Ms. Kathy Dowding make often-emotional bi-weekly appeals to the Pleasanton City Council to hold agenda discussions about the Iraq war. At the March 4, 2008 council meeting, Ms. Dowding read a list of the weekly war dead to the council and, as if on cue, choked up. She concluded her matters open to the public five minutes by appealing to the council to put the war on the council agenda. “Do something,” she admonished the counselors.

It is clear the Mr. Norman and Ms. Dowding are itching for a debate not just a discussion as she claimed in a February 23, 2007 Pleasanton Weekly article where she was quoted as saying that an agenda item would be for a community forum for fact finding. She is either naïve or she is being just a little bit disingenuous. She appears to be a seasoned anti-warrior so disingenuous is probably the path on which she is traveling.

The one thing that Ms. Dowding did not do was read the names of the dead in the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Nor did she read the list of Americans, allies, and journalists beheaded by our avowed enemies.

Counselor Matt Sullivan took the bait, as he has done before, and promised to hold the agenda discussion at the end of the meeting under matters initiated by the council. He did and only anti-war Mayor Jennifer Hosterman supported the concept--again. The posturing by Ms. Hosterman and Mr. Sullivan was real theater. Mr. Sullivan drew his line in the sand on a council war discussion. Ms. Hosterman, not to be outdone, listed her bonefides as an anti warrior and proudly proclaimed that she was able to vote against the war at the National Conference of Mayors meeting she recently attended and wanted to get the item on the agenda so that counselors and citizens could also be heard.

Counselor Cindy McGovern put it into perfect perspective. The discussion was best left to those who know more about the subject (real facts and not talking points from the Democrat party) and who are responsible. She pointed out the obvious that citizens could speak at the council meetings in the exact slot Ms. Dowding had used earlier that evening. Counselor Cheryl Cook-Kallio stopped her comments so as not to violate the law forbidding council discussions on any subject not on the agenda. The discussion initiated by Mr. Sullivan was to put the topic on the agenda—not the war. It was clear that she did not favor Mr. Sullivan’s proposal. Counselor Jerry Thorne was also eloquent and brief saying simply that he could not support an agenda item for the Iraq war.

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