The first "Take A Stand Day" event

This past Thursday I had the honor of moderating the very first "Take A Stand Day" event. In attendance was Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA) and Rand Beers who gave their assessment of the current situation in Iraq. The event was covered by C-SPAN, The Washington Post, and The Politico.

The main focus of our event was to allow Congressman Davis to explain his position on Iraq directly to a room full of over 100 of his constituents.

I'm no Tim Russert when it comes to moderating so I did the best I could do and was fortunate enough to present the AAEI message to the audience.

Afterward I introduced Rand Beers, a former member of the National Security Council, and Counter Terrorism Advisor to George W. Bush. Mr. Beers resigned his position in the White House in opposition to the war in Iraq - listen here to his brilliant remarks.

We were able to get a lot of information out of Congressman Davis. The most sobering remark was when he actually admitted that the White House is likely to "tweak" the report from General David Petraeus expected to come in mid September. Most Republican members of Congress have been using this upcoming report as cover from frustrated constituents who want answers on how the U.S. will get out of Iraq - the Republican members are quick to respond "well, we will just have to wait and see what General Petraeus has to say in September."

In addition, I thought it was appropriate to incorporate into the discussion our current policy of granting amnesty to former Al-Qeada affiliates and insurgents who have American blood on their hands. To me it was necessary because President Bush says we have to remain in Iraq to fight Al-Qeada and the insurgency. That is main message Bush sends to his hardcore loyalist who eat it right up. Davis concurs with Bush but agrees it is "distasteful." Also, the issue raised that the GAO has reported that we have lost over 190,000 weapons that we have supplied to the Iraqis that are now missing and could possibly being used against us.

Other questions were presented to the Congressman on how much Iraq war spending has impacted his congressional district, and the possibility of 18 month troop deployments in Iraq if the situation doesn't change. The erosion of our military capacity and capability of our National Guard forces was addressed as well.

We were also fortunate to be joined by Sister Marie Lucey and Bob Petrusak. I happen to know Bob personally and he is a very reasonable man who cares deeply about troops.

Overall the event was a tremendous success with very insightful dialogue from all members of the panel.

Tomorrow there are similar town hall meetings taking place around the country and we'll have reports from them, too.

John Bruhns
Take A Stand