Antiwar Party

by Bruce Schimmel

The last political function Lynne and Bert Strieb hosted at their home was called to stop the war in Vietnam.

In their mid-60s, the couple recently entertained an overflow crowd to premiere a documentary called Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War. Nationally, the estimated 2,500 house parties held last Sunday, Dec. 7, were organized by the Internet-based political action group, MoveOn. The Strieb’s Queen Village home -- filled with books and art -- had room for 28 but more than 40 people showed up. They crashed because the 15 other parties in the Philadelphia area were sold out. The crowd was more middle-aged than young, mostly white, a few wearing Dean campaign buttons. For almost all, this was their first face-to-face MoveOn meeting.

Most were strangers to each other, but chatted amiably while noshing on baklava, dates, chocolate cookies and Tootsie Pops while waiting for the film to begin. The hourlong documentary was stark but compelling. It featured interviews with more than 20 experts -- former CIA officers, analysts from the State Department, the Department of Defense, U.N. weapons inspectors and foreign diplomats. These interviews were interspersed with speeches from Bush, Cheney, Rice and others who presented the case for war. After each administration spokesperson made a point, several experts followed to undercut them. Among the items refuted were that: Iraq had a nuclear arsenal; there were weapons of chemical and biological mass destruction; there was a link between 9/11 terrorists and Iraq; once defeated, Iraq would welcome American liberators and American-style democracy and Iraqi oil would pay for Iraq's rebuilding.

There was little in the film that was funny, though many in the audience giggled whenever the president spoke.

"It's hard to convince people who have another point of view," said a man from the Washington West neighborhood during the discussion that followed. It was a comment to which someone quipped, "You mean, like people we had Thanksgiving with?"

A willowy young blonde woman then asked the question of the hour: "What can I do?"

"Few people of a liberal bent will beat on the ears of politicians, but I've been doing that more lately through MoveOn [by sending online petitions]," responded the man from WashWest. "I'm now moving beyond pushbutton democracy."

"For me," said Lynne Strieb, "it's taking action of some kind. Somehow we have to let politicians know we don't agree. But I don't want this [our disagreement] to be construed as unpatriotic."

"People are mobilizing around this [war] much faster [than the Vietnam War]," said Bert Strieb. For him, hosting an antiwar party after a hiatus of some 25 years, "seemed like a decent thing to do."