Most Congressional Warmongers Are Republicans, Of Course, But Plenty Of Democrats Are Too

Obama hasn't helped our country's image recover from 8 years of Bush-Cheney as much as everyone expected. In fact, the U.S. is looked at as the biggest threat to world peace-- by far.

Over 12 years into the so-called "Global War on Terror," the United States appears to be striking terror into the hearts of the rest of the world.

In their annual End of Year survey, Win/Gallup International found that the United States is considered the number one "greatest threat to peace in the world today" by people across the globe.

Who sees America as the biggest threat? People almost everyone, including here in North America, where the U.S. is considered the top threat to peace by 37% of Mexicans, 17% of Canadians and 13% of… Americans-- probably people who spend a lot of time watching John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Lindsey Graham showboating on C-Span. Or maybe they tune into senile Califiornia Democrat Dianne Feinstein who said last week that "I think most important is that we take direct action now against ISIS."

Thursday, 23 House Republicans joined 142 Democrats in an attempt to require that no funds in the Department of Defense FY2015 Appropriations bill go towards combat operations in Iraq. That was an amendment Barbara Lee' proposed. Predictably, none of the Republicans being opposed this year by the Blue America candidates were among the Republicans who voted for peace.

With the exceptions of Paul Ryan and Sean Duffy, every Member of Congress from Wisconsin voted against financing more combat in Iraq, including Jim Sensenbrenner ®, Mark Pocan (D), Tom Petri ®, Ron Kind (New Dem), Reid Ribble ®, and Gwen Moore (D). We contacted Kelly Westlund, the progressive Democrat from Ashland who's running for the northern Wisconsin House seat currently held by Duffy. "Unlike Representative Duffy, who voted no on the amendment, I'm not willing to drag our service men and women into another prolonged conflict," she told us. "I don't want to provide any kind of military assistance until we have a better understanding of the situation and a plan to move forward… This is how a prolonged military presence starts. We must clearly define our objectives if we are providing assistance… The situation in Iraq is an extremely complicated and cannot be resolved immediately or with a simple solution. But, I am concerned with the President’s decision to send 300 military advisers to Iraq. Additional military force should not always be the answer.”

Our newest endorsee, Alan Cohn from the Tampa Bay/Polk County area (FL-15), is also running against a Republican warmonger, Tea Party extremist Dennis Ross, who-- unlike Florida conservative Republicans Bill Posey and Ted Yoho-- voted against curtailing a rush to war in Iraq again. "What's happening right now," Cohn told us today, "has been inevitable from the moment Dick Cheney lied us into this misguided war. It's still incredible to me we went into Iraq when our first priority after 9/11 should have been to get Osama Bin Laden and defeat Al Qaeda. Instead, we bungled two wars at the cost of the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers and we had to wait for a new president to bring Bin Laden to justice. I don't claim to know what the U.S. can do to fix Iraq but I am sure the answer isn't going to come from Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and their incompetent band of bunglers who are responsible for the situation which is tragically unfolding."

Another consistent warmonger through his 27 years in Congress was Fred Upton, who eagerly voted NO, even while fellow Michigan Republicans Justin Amash and Dan Benishek stood up and voted for peace. His opponent this year, Paul Clements, is in lone of the most important and winnable races of the cycle, one that Steve Israel at the DCCC refuse to get involved with. This is where national grassroots support can make a real difference.

"For 28 years," Clements told us, "Fred Upton has stood with those that seek to make war abroad while our communities in southwest Michigan suffer. Upton has received over $100,000 from the Defense sector over his career, and rewarded them kindly by supporting an agenda of endless war while cutting vital investments here at home. Just this year he voted for the Ryan budget that increases funding for defense spending while slashing vital programs for seniors, veterans and our future. We need independent leaders focused on making investments at home that improve our economy, education system and environment. That means holding those that push for endless war accountable and shifting budget priorities towards home and diplomacy. It doesn't matter to me if we have a Republican president stumbling into an indefensible sectarian civil war across the globe or a Democratic president doing the same thing. I want to represent the men and women of southwest Michigan and they are not interested in seeing our country, in John Quincy Adams words, 'go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.' Michigan has pressing problems of its own to deal with and a religious war between Sunnis and Shia is not part of it."

If, as a conscientious voter, you oppose getting involved in another Iraq war, it's not enough to just use the old rule of thumb that says Republicans are the culprits. sure, most of them are, but so are more than a few Democrats-- especially the ones being pushed the hardest by the DCCC and it's warmongering chairman, Steve Israel. Guarantee: no warmongers on this list of candidates.