Protesters to confront GOP candidates with 'cost of war' Nick Juliano

Published: Wednesday September 5, 2007





Print This Email This While the top Republican presidential candidates have criticized President Bush's approach to the war in some instances, all the GOP frontrunners maintain support for the war in Iraq and the president's troop surge. Sen. John McCain, whose campaign has struggled lately, plans to make the war a key part of his appeal to voters at Wednesday's GOP debate, reminding viewers that he has called for more troops in Iraq since 2003. When they gather in New Hampshire Wednesday night, Republicans searching for Bush's replacement will be confronted by antiwar activists who will offer alternatives for the $720 million they say is being spent daily in Iraq. (In the time it took to read the previous sentences, $125,000 was spent on the war, according to the activists' estimates.) "I'm convinced that many Republicans and maybe even most Republicans are going to share some of those concerns that we've got" Arnie Alpert, an organizer with American Friends Service Committee, told RAW STORY in an interview. "I'm not going to pick a fight, but I'm bringing some information that might resonate with them." Alpert said activists will display five large banners outside the debate site illustrating how much the money being spent on the war could pay for domestically. The group has organized similar protests at Republican and Democratic debates in New Hampshire this year. "They're still spending $720 million a day at war, so we obviously want that to change, so that's what our message is," Alpert said of the group's "nonpartisan" decision to target Democrats as well as Republicans. The protesters are being organized with the help of New Hampshire Peace Action as an extension of the AFSC's "Cost of War" advocacy project. On its Web site, the group says $720 million would pay salaries for 12,478 new teachers, or it could fund 34,904 four-year college scholarships or it could retrofit more than 1.2 million homes to use renewable energy. Protesters will be displaying large signs similar to the graphics displayed on the site. A Quaker organization, AFSC arrived at its estimate of the war's daily cost based on calculations from economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. The estimate factors in money approved by Congress to directly fund the war along with estimates of its long-term costs, such as interest on the national debt and healthcare for returning veterans.



