There was a time when some Democrats in the United States House of Representatives would speak out against and vote against US wars. Sadly, the Tuesday US House of Representatives vote on a bill (HR 7691) to spend over 40 billion dollars in pursuance of the US war on Russia demonstrates that anti-war Democrats are now extinct in the House.
The bill passed by a wide margin — 368 to 57. Among Republican representatives, the vote went about 72 percent in favor of the war spending. The vote among Democrats was unanimously pro-war. All 57 “no” votes were from Republicans.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) stood out during his time as a House member from 1997 through 2013 for being a strong leader in the effort opposing US wars pursued by both Republican and Democratic presidents. The anti-war Democrats voice is gone from the House, for now at least. Here is a reminder of what it can sound like — Kucinich speaking on the House floor in 2006 for terminating the US government’s war on Iraq that years earlier he had voted against commencing:
Note that Kucinich, who is an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, emphasized in his speech that Congress cutting off funds for the Iraq War would have caused the war to end. The same holds true today in regard to the ongoing US war on Russia: Congress ending funding would end the war.
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity is a project of Dr. Paul’s Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (F.R.E.E.), founded in the 1970s as an educational organization. The Institute continues and expands Dr. Paul’s lifetime of public advocacy for a peaceful foreign policy and the protection of civil liberties at home. Visit http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org