• Anti-war group founded by Ralph Nader
• Members include supporters of Iraqi "resistance"

Established by Ralph Nader in 2000, Democracy Rising (DR) is a Washington, D.C.-based anti-war advocacy group. It is a founding member of the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition, which is led by Leslie Cagan, a radical who aligns her politics with those of Fidel Castro's Communist Cuba. DR is also a member of the After Downing Street anti-war coalition.

DR seeks to "end the occupation of Iraq by empowering activists so they cannot be ignored by decision-makers in Washington, DC." Its website features a page called "Iraq War Facts" -- a selection of excerpts culled from leftist webzines, op-eds critical of the war effort, and "think tanks" such as the Institute for Policy Studies. 

DR's website makes available pre-written "click and send letters" that activists can send to members of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Bush administration. Since March of 2005, DR's website has also featured a blog with occasional entries by Ralph Nader and other DR members protesting the Iraq War and attacking the Bush administration. A March 2006 post by Nader, for instance, denounced President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as the "top outlaws smashing our country's rule of law and democratic liberties."

In February 2005, DR launched its so-called "Stop the War" campaign, featuring, on its website, details of the group's "Exit Strategy" for the Iraq War. The strategy called on the United States to withdraw all troops and civilian contractors from the country. DR attributed the "insurrection, kidnapping, terrorism and anarchy" mainly to the "U.S. presence" in the country. It also claimed that the "current illegal war and occupation has devastated the country," and urged against allowing "U.S. oil and other corporations to profit from the illegal invasion and occupation." DR activist Kevin Zeese (who has since become the organization's Director), who oversaw the "Stop the War" campaign, further claimed that an exit strategy was essential to combat what he alleged was the U.S. government's "chronic corruption related to Iraq contracts." To substantiate the charge, DR's website spotlighted a document titled "The Bush Family's War Profiteering," which sought to provide "examples of Bush family members who have profited from the war and occupation of Iraq." 

Apart from troop withdrawal, the DR exit strategy advocated the following: Develop an international peace-keeping force under the auspices of the United Nations; support Iraqi self-rule and free and fair elections, but only after the U.S. military presence is gone; demand U.S. humanitarian aid to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure.

DR's former Director Virginia Rodino is described on the group's website as "a global justice activist who has protested the G-8, WTO, IMF, World Bank, and the occupation of Palestine and Iraq around the globe." She is also a vocal supporter of the terrorist insurgency in Iraq. At the 2005 G-8 summit in Scotland, she donned a T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Insurgent," which she explained was meant to express her "solidarity with the courageous Iraqi resistance." A member of the Administrative Steering Committee of United for Peace and Justice, Rodino says that she supports Iraqi terrorists "[n]ot because the Haitians, the Palestinians, the domestic poor and abused are any less deserving of liberation, but because ultimately a victory of the Iraqi people against the U.S. war machine is a victory for liberation struggles around the globe."

DR also has its own Washington D.C.-based lobbyist, Carol Kramer, who advocates "legislative initiatives that would withdraw U.S. troops and corporate interests, cut off war funding, and ban permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq." Kramer has worked to drum up Congressional support for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.