tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16439134.post1750806305924329404..comments2024-01-24T21:46:17.346-08:00Comments on Soldier Say No!: Kyle Snyder in New OrleansSoldier Say No!http://www.blogger.com/profile/04662414091130928025noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16439134.post-54369457158641332072006-12-19T18:47:00.000-08:002006-12-19T18:47:00.000-08:00Fwd: Chomsky, Zinn, et al: U.S. out of Iraq
***...Fwd: Chomsky, Zinn, et al: U.S. out of Iraq<br /><br /><br /><br />*****please sign and circulate widely****<br /><br />Why we stand for immediate withdrawal of all U.S.<br />troops from Iraq<br />http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/OutNow/<br /><br />THE U.S. occupation of Iraq has not liberated the<br />Iraqi people, but has made life worse for most Iraqis.<br /><br />Tens of thousands of U.S. service people have been<br />killed or maimed, and hundreds of thousands of<br />innocent Iraqis have lost their lives as a result of<br />the U.S. invasion in 2003, the ongoing occupation, and<br />the violence unleashed by them.<br /><br />Iraq's infrastructure has been destroyed, and U.S.<br />plans for reconstruction abandoned. There is less<br />electricity, less clean drinking water, and more<br />unemployment today than before the U.S. invasion.<br /><br />All of the justifications initially provided by the<br />U.S. for waging war on Iraq have been exposed as lies;<br />the real reasons for the invasion — to control Iraq's<br />oil reserves and to increase U.S. strategic influence<br />in the region — now stand revealed.<br /><br />The Bush administration has insisted again and again<br />that stability, democracy, and prosperity are around<br />the next bend in the road. But with each day that the<br />U.S. stays, the violence and lack of security facing<br />Iraqis worsen. The U.S. says that it cannot withdraw<br />its military because Iraq will collapse into civil war<br />if it does. But the U.S. has deliberately stoked<br />sectarian divisions in its ongoing attempt to install<br />a U.S.-friendly regime, thus driving Iraq towards<br />civil war.<br /><br />The November elections in the United States sent a<br />clear message that voters reject the Iraq war, and<br />opinion polls show that seven in 10 Iraqis want the<br />U.S. to leave sooner rather than later. Even most U.S.<br />military and political leaders agree that staying the<br />course in Iraq is a policy that is bound to fail.<br /><br />Yet all the various alternative plans for Iraq now<br />being discussed in Washington, including those<br />proposed by House and Senate Democrats, aren't about<br />withdrawing the U.S. military from Iraq. Rather, these<br />strategies are about continuing the pursuit of U.S.<br />goals in Iraq and the larger Middle East using<br />different means.<br /><br />Even the proposal to redeploy U.S . troops outside of<br />Iraq, a plan favored by many Democratic Party leaders,<br />envisions continued U.S. intervention inside Iraq.<br /><br />With former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger<br />insisting that a military victory in Iraq is no longer<br />possible and (Ret.) Lt. Gen. William Odom calling for<br />"complete withdrawal" of all U.S. troops, the antiwar<br />movement should demand no less than the immediate<br />withdrawal of the U.S. military — as well as<br />reparations to the Iraqi people, so they can rebuild<br />their own society and genuinely determine their own<br />future.<br /><br />We call on the U.S. to get out of Iraq — not in six<br />months, not in a year, but now.Roberto Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04842270149806737425noreply@blogger.com