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A
Different Kind of Peace Candidate: Dal LaMagna Runs for President Through
Baghdad
By
Kevin Zeese
ccun.org,
July 1, 2007
Dal LaMagna (rhymes with Lasagna) is
running for president by working to end the Iraq War. The
independently wealthy businessman just returned from a trip to
Amman
,
Jordan
and
Baghdad
,
Iraq
where he met with members of the Iraq
Parliament, Iraqi tribal leaders, representatives of the resistance and U.S
authorities, including Generals Petraeus, Lamb and
Newton
. He
told me that the road to the White House is through
Iraq
.
Dal
has been working to end the war for several years. He was the
executive producer of three feature length Iraq War movies: The
Ground Truth, The
War Tapes, and Iraq
For Sale. I met Dal when he moved to
Washington
,
DC
to work with Congress to end the war. He
was hopeful that after the Democrats 2006 victory the party leadership would
move to end the war.
Dal
developed a niche for himself in
Washington
,
DC
by playing the role of bringing the voices of
Iraq
to the
United States
. He developed a power point presentation
of his previous trips to the region, created a satellite video conference
between Iraqi Parliamentarians and a bi-partisan groups of Members of
Congress. But, Dal learned the frustration of getting things done in
official
Washington
. And the media, rather than covering the
momentous event of legislators from both countries talking – ignored the
whole thing.
Dal
is not one to give up. He wants the “killing and maiming” in
Iraq
to end. And, after meeting with many key
people in
Iraq
he has come to the conclusion that a complete
U.S.
withdrawal from
Iraq
has the best chance of ending the violence.
His experience with Iraqis dispels many myths that Americans have about
Iraq
. Two key myths are particularly important:
First,
Iraqis consistently tell him that the violence will start abating when the
U.S.
announces plans to leave. One Iraqi tribal
leader reversed Bush’s rhetoric and said “when the
U.S.
stands down Iraqis will stand up.” The
consistent view is that the root cause of the violence is the occupation.
Second,
there will not be a civil war if the
U.S.
leaves in fact the chance of civil war increases
if the
U.S.
stays. Iraqis
do not need the
U.S.
to deal with the sectarian conflict between
Sunni and Shia. There is not a sectarian civil war in progress nor
will one erupt. Over and over Dal heard from Iraqis that they have mixed
marriages. One quipped “I am
Sunni my wife if Shia I don’t need American soldiers to protect me from my
wife.” What is brewing is a political civil war the nationalists vs. the
separatists.
Dal
has provided transcripts, video tapes and summaries of his meetings with
Iraqis on his website.
While
Iraq
is first and foremost on Dal’s issue list he
is also running with a philosophy of transparent government. He was
the founder of the Progressive
Government Institute (PGI), a non-partisan, educational organization
dedicated to ensuring transparency and accountability in the executive
branch of the
United States
federal government. And, as part of his campaign
he plans to gradually announce his executive branch appointments as he runs.
He wants the public to see the team they are electing if the vote for him.
And,
Dal is an advocate for “responsible capitalism” and has been an
executive in a multi-national company that practiced it. Dal LaMagna
is also known as Tweezerman,
the name of the company he founded in 1980, built it into a multi-national,
premier personal care tool brand and sold in 2004. His company practiced
responsible capitalism which LaMagna made part of the company’s mission.
The mission included benefiting all stakeholders – including financial
partners, employees, customers, vendors, the community and the natural
environment. As a result when LaMagna sold Tweezerman his
U.S.
employees kept their jobs and shared $10 million
dollars in capital gains because each one was a shareholder in the company.
LaMagna
received his MBA from
Harvard
Business
School
in 1971 and his master’s in public
administration in 2002 from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
LaMagna is a long standing member of the Social Venture Network (SVN), a
group of responsible capitalists promoting social and economic justice
through their businesses. He served on its Advisory Board of Directors
for two years. He now serves on
the Board of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute which offers an MBA in
sustainable business.
LaMagna
is convinced that American voters are tired of business as usual. With
the unpopularity of the president, the Congress and both political parties,
LaMagna is going to be taking a different approach to politics. And,
because the top issue on the voter’s agenda is
Iraq
, LaMagna is going to use his campaign to show
the public that the war can be ended – quickly and responsibly. He
plans to begin to run television advertisements that will fea
tu
re Iraqi’s speaking to Americans directly.
This
will be a campaign to watch as it will be different from any other –
different not only for the 2008 campaign but different from any that has
come before it.
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