William D. Hartung and David Cortright Waging Nonviolence
Americans voted against militarism in the midterms. Now, the new Congress must prioritize ending wars abroad and repression at home.
Voters in the midterm elections dealt a decisive blow to Trump’s war agenda and have created new possibilities for challenging militarism and ending the debacle in Iran. The blue tsunami that swept across the country was driven by many issues, including tariffs, corruption and higher prices, but voter discontent was rooted in opposition to the war against Iran and the high fuel costs and inflation that resulted.
The election outcome presents an opportunity for activists to intensify pressures to end the war, reverse excessive arms spending, restore necessary funding for vital social and environmental priorities, and protect democracy. We need to elect a government that will build the foundations for a forward-looking, progressive foreign policy by expanding essential diplomatic capabilities and restoring U.S. support for global cooperation.
The current electoral realignment can be compared to the dramatic political transformation that occurred in the 2006 midterm elections. That year, the Iraq war was the decisive issue in helping Democrats pick up 31 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and six in the Senate. Then as now, affordability and immigration were important issues, but the dominant concern was war in the Middle East. As analysts argued at the time, Iraq was the “Archimedean lever” that shifted voters toward Democrats.
But when the new Congress assembled in 2007, Democratic Party leaders equivocated. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a legislative agenda for the new Congress that ignored Iraq.
Embed from Getty ImagesAs Tom Hayden wrote in “Ending the War in Iraq”, antiwar activists were furious. Constituents bombarded Democratic leaders with demands to prioritize withdrawal from Iraq. Protesters gathered outside Pelosi’s San Francisco home. An estimated 100,000 people marched in an antiwar rally in Washington, D.C.
Democratic leaders quickly got the message and agreed on a legislative strategy to establish a timetable for withdrawal, which Congress subsequently adopted.
We may need to exert similar pressures now to ensure that the new Congress fulfills its political mandate to end the Iran war and takes action to reverse other elements of Trump’s dangerous foreign policies.
The threats to peace have grown significantly in recent years, and they are enormous and multifaceted. An unending, illegal war in Iran and related carnage throughout the Middle East; the arming of repressive regimes, up to and including enabling genocide in Gaza and occupation and ethnic cleansing in Lebanon; the skyrocketing of military-related spending (proposed at more than $1.5 trillion this year) and an accelerating nuclear arms race. All of this is occurring while the Pentagon is moving rapidly towards the deployment of AI-driven weapons systems that can operate without human pilots or human control.
The threat or use of force has taken precedence over diplomacy, economic development and peacebuilding programs. The White House has rebuked democratic allies in Canada and Europe while coddling authoritarian regimes in Russia and Saudi Arabia.
The human, economic and environmental consequences of these militarist policies have been disastrous — trillions of dollars wasted, hundreds of thousands of lives lost and tens of millions of people driven from their homes.
The pursuit of peace abroad depends on the defense of democracy at home. Legislators must protect democracy by removing obstacles to the exercise of basic rights, including the right to vote, the right of assembly, freedom of speech and an end to discrimination based on race, gender, religion and sexual preference. We need to create an America where every person is cherished, and every person is treated with the dignity they deserve — and then we need to extend that ethos to the rest of the world.
For cooperation, not confrontation
On the foreign policy front, we must demand congressional and executive action on the following major goals:
1. End the Iran war: Prohibit the use of funds for military hostilities over, in, or off the shores of Iran. Work through the United Nations to reach a comprehensive diplomatic agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and contain Iran’s nuclear program. Close vulnerable American military bases in the region.
2. Halt and reverse the arms race: Enact major reductions in the bloated Pentagon budget, roll back spending on nuclear weapons systems and rein in the rush towards automated warfare based on artificial intelligence. Block funding for renewed nuclear testing and the production and deployment of additional nuclear warheads.
3. Stop arming genocide and repression: Cut military aid and arms transfers to Israel that violate U.S. human rights law and enable genocidal policies in Gaza, and accelerate dispossession and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and aggression in Lebanon. Stop providing arms and aid to repressive and undemocratic regimes in the region. Terminate the Saudi nuclear deal.
4. Roll back the war at home: End militarized immigration enforcement, the unlawful detention of immigrants and ICE repression — including murder — of peaceful protesters. ICE should be eliminated as part of a thorough revamping of immigration policy.
Together these points form a peace agenda that lays the foundations for a progressive foreign policy that rebuilds critical diplomatic capacities and U.S. support for multilateralism.
Congress already started to take action on some of these priorities, even under Republican majorities. And the Democrats in Congress have started to take stronger stands against endless war and excess military spending in a way that has not happened in decades. In June of this year, the Senate joined the House of Representatives in adopting House Concurrent Resolution 86 under the War Powers Act, directing the President to end military hostilities in Iran, although the White House ignored the order.
In July Senate Democrats refused to authorize the bloated $1.15 trillion request for funding of routine Pentagon operations over concerns about the Iran war. Congress needs to follow through in the lame duck session to oppose any increases in the Pentagon’s topline budget.
Also in July, almost half of the Democratic members of the House voted to eliminate U.S. aid for Israel as part of groundswell of opposition to Israeli policy in Gaza. Congress must follow through with actions to end U.S. complicity with war crimes. Prospects for success on these and related legislative measures in the new Congress will increase with the arrival of dozens of new representatives and senators elected on a mandate against endless war. But success is not assured.
A new Congress as a new beginning
While the realignment of Congress in the midterm election is a victory for sanity and peace, it is only the beginning of the struggle that lies ahead. To become law, the peace agenda needs the backing of a strong, growing movement of coordinated national and grassroots public action. This will require dialogue and relationship-building across the various movements fighting for justice and peace, a process that is already underway in many places.
We must demand that the leaders of the new Congress prioritize the proposed peace agenda, as part of a pivot toward developing and reinvesting in an alternative foreign policy for peace. If the newly elected members waffle or refuse, we should protest in Washington, D.C. and assemble at their local offices to demand that they act.
We will need to undertake coordinated and systematic efforts to brief new members of Congress on the key issues and the legislative options for ending the war in Iran, reversing America’s militarized priorities and preventing oppression and violence in the Middle East.
Plans are needed in the coming weeks and months to convene community meetings and teach-ins on the proposed peace policy agenda — both at the national level and in dozens of key states and districts. It is essential that members of Congress hear the demand for change not only from lobbyists in Washington, D.C. but from voters in their home districts.
Embed from Getty ImagesWe need to be clear that creating a new foreign policy means more than an end to Trumpian policies, as unconscionable as they are and have been. America’s penchant for war without public or congressional consent has persisted under presidents of both parties, as has unstinting support for Israel’s brutal conduct in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran, as well as the repression and political machinations of oil rich states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
To craft a new foreign policy, we need more than the absence of Trump. We need the presence of an alert, mobilized citizenry committed to radically changing America’s approach to the world. Our mission is to turn our country toward diplomacy and international cooperation rather than war, and to hold officeholders of both parties to that standard.
We need a foreign policy of, by, and for the people — all of us, not just a narrow, self-interested, corrupt elite. Foreign policy should serve the aspirations of everyone for peace, sustenance and basic human rights, regardless of race, religion, place of origin, gender or sexuality. Not just changing America but also joining hands with movements and peoples around the world in struggles for peace and democracy against war and repression.
Waging Nonviolence puts people organizing for justice and peace at the center of the story, with independent reporting and sharp analysis of grassroots movements worldwide. Discover the struggles, strategies and victories that show how ordinary people build extraordinary power.
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