About two dozen activists from Montgomery County and other parts of Maryland took over Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s office Thursday to protest what they called her refusal to stop funding the war on Iraq.
Mikulski has remained a fervent opponent of the war for the past four years, yet the protesters contend that by continuing to approve budgetary allocations supporting the effort she’s not doing her part to stop it.
“You cannot say you are against the war and continue to fund the war, as she has for years,” said Silver Spring resident Gordon Clark, who’s a member of the 600-member group PeaceAction Montgomery. “This is her war every much as much as it is [President] George Bush’s war.”
Clark and about 20 other residents sharing his beliefs remained in the longtime Maryland senator’s suite in the Hart Senate Office Building for about 90 minutes, rattling off names of Maryland soldiers and Iraqis who have died in the war-torn country. Clark said they hoped to remind Mikulski just how large of toll the battles have taken locally and internationally.
According to the National Priorities Project, 55 of the 3,000-plus U.S. soldiers who have died in the war are from Maryland.
Clark said Mikulski is by no means the only legislator in the state reluctant to push for Congress to restrict funding for the war. However, the activists targeted her in their first organized nonviolent demonstration because of her powerful role.
Mikulski’s press secretary Melissa Schwartz said she invited protesters to set up appointments to meet with the senator.
She would not comment directly on Mikulski’s position on restricting funds for the war.
But she reiterated that the senator was one of 23 who voted against military intervention in Iraq in 2002. And in a speech delivered on the Senate floor earlier this month, Mikulski condemned President Bush’s plan to escalate the number of troops and pushed for the need to bring troops home.
“This military escalation is reckless — it won’t produce the political reconciliation Iraq needs to stop the violence, and it won’t bring stability to the region,” she said.
