Peace activist wants Larsen to rethink war funding votes

SAM TAYLOR - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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BELLINGHAM - Bill Distler has a goal: Get 100 people to write their own names on the ballot for the 2nd Congressional District race.

The 61-year-old Vietnam War squad leader is trying to send a message to U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett. That message? Stop voting for war funding authorization bills being sought by President Bush for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

So far, only three people have joined Distler on his quest.

"It's not an idea that is catching on like wildfire, and I wish it was," Distler said. "It seems to be a very daunting idea to people to run for Congress."

A former soldier, Distler has been active in the local peace community for decades. In the 1980s he was active in trying to prevent U.S. military intervention in various South American countries. He's been arrested six times for "non-violent civil disobedience to protest US military intervention in Nicaragua," according to his Web site.

Distler also recently was given full 100 percent disability by the U.S. government because he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, he said.

The way Distler sees it, Larsen supports the war. Despite the congressman's initial vote against authorizing the Iraq war, he's since voted for all war funding requests. Congress has approved $650 billion in war spending for Iraq since it started five years ago and $200 billion for Afghanistan.

"He seems to have given the impression that he's against the war, but if you vote for every war funding request, I don't think that's being against the war," Distler said.

Larsen sees it very differently.

The congressman has opposed the war from the beginning, and says he "strongly" disagrees with "the Bush Administration policies in Iraq." But he doesn't believe U.S. troops should be left without equipment and tools they need to do the jobs they've been ordered to do.

"I have consistently voted to make sure that the men and women serving in our military get needed equipment - including body armor and armored vehicles to protect them from roadside bombs - while pushing the administration to change its failed policies," Larsen said.

Distler said he recognizes that Larsen's Republican opponent, Rick Bart, supports the war in Iraq, but he believes that Bart is being more open about his position.

In the end, Distler doesn't think he and his group of 100 - or, rather, his group of three as of now - will actually win any election. That's not the point, though.

"I'm not gonna defeat Rick Larsen, that's not the goal. The goal is to change his voting, his support for the war," he said.