Research and writing on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Central and Latin America, juvenile justice, and the prospects of the Obama presidency. Recent Tom Hayden op-eds have appeared in the LA Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post and the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal. He provided in-depth onsite coverage for the Nation of the June 2009 Salvadoran elections, and a Nation interview with deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya. Tom is a member of the Nation’s editorial board and writes frequently for TheNation.com, the Huffington Post, Talkingpointsmemo.com, and Dailykos.com.
Advocacy, speaking, consulting: Tom wrote the September 2009 petition against Afghan War signed by over 5,000 people in its first week. He blogs daily to a personal network of 2,000 activists in key states, and to tens of thousands on partnering websites. He is an Afghanistan-Iraq advisor for Progressive Democrats of America, serves on the boards of Brave New Foundation and Just Foreign Policy, and collaborates with the networks of United For Peace and Justice, CODEPINK, Peace Action, and Stop Funding Torture.com.
Tom first proposed and influenced progressive Congressional exit strategy hearings in 2005 [Iraq] and 2009 [Afghanistan]. He is an active intermediary in an informal working group to promote dialogue between the Obama administration and the Venezuelan government.
The next phase – through 2010 – will be one of intense debate over escalation versus de-escalation towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, and whether the promise of an American withdrawal from Iraq will be fulfilled. Public opinion has shifted strongly against the wars, but the public interest remains to be effectively advocated and promoted in the face of powerful interest groups lobbying for an escalation to a 10-12 year war in Afghanistan alone. History shows that public opposition opinion was a significant factor in influencing policymakers in 2006 and 2008. Since those times, however, organized anti-war pressure has fallen off, derailed by new concerns over the Wall Street meltdown, the health care debate, and a lingering public expectation that the new presidency means an era of peace.
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The next phase requires immediate attention to building and increasing the pressure for an exit strategy and troop withdrawal in an additional 150 districts and states. This cannot be done by email blasts alone, or by the natural evolution of public opinion. It will mean a struggle to reframe the national debate around an exit strategy including troop withdrawals, rational criticism of the national security experts favoring escalation, and building a groundswell of public concern on constituent and community levels where all politics begins.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 02:02PM