Maryland residents who oppose the Iraq war tried to stage a sit-in at the Baltimore office of Sen. Barbara Mikulski on Tuesday, urging her to use the “power of purse” to end the war.
But the senator responded to their demands by saying she would not cut funding while soldiers were still on the battlefield.
Arguing that they were fed up with a lack of constructive opposition to the planned “surge” of troops, a mix of students, residents and veterans aired their grievances to representatives from Mikulski?s staff after the protesters were blocked from entering her Fells Point office.
/>”We are in contact with troops on the ground, and they are not asking for more armor; they?re saying, ?Send us home,? ” said Ellen Barfield, 50, a Hamden resident and member of the national organization Veterans for Peace.
“They?ve never had enough equipment, but that?s not the issue ? the issue is ending the war,” she said.
Mikulski?s staff said the senator was not in her office at the time but in Washington on business. Protesters also had scheduled simultaneous sit-ins Tuesday at Mikulski?s Greenbelt and Washington offices.
Protesters in Baltimore said Mikulski, who voted against the Iraq war in Congress, has not been outspoken enough against it. They demanded that she take a more active role by cutting funding.
“If you support additional funding, you support the war,” Maria Allwine said. “You can?t have it both ways.”
“We don?t want to cast aspersions on the senator?s motives, but a year and a half from now we could be facing hundreds more troops and thousand more Iraqis dead,” said Brad Simpson, a professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Ellen Janes, state director for Mikulski, said she would take the protesters? concerns to the senator directly.
The protesters also presented Mikulski?s staff with a letter asking for a face-to-face meeting.
But in a written statement released after the protest, Mikulski said she would not cut off funding.
“I will consider all proposals to bring our troops home, but I will not abandon them while they are on the battlefield or when they come home needing health care,” she said. “I will not vote to end funding.”
