World Spirit Reflections and Updates

Open-ended support for the occupation of Iraq is a cancer on our politics and a calamity for the people of Iraq and our troops. Nancy Pelosi's and Harry Reid's job should not be to round up Democratic votes to continue to spend hundreds of billions of our tax dollars for another year and a half or more of Bush's war. That's not the mandate for peace the voters delivered last November.

Will you help Peace Action hold Congress accountable to its election campaign promise to end the US occupation of Iraq?

The 'new' Congress has failed its first test. It could have used the power of the purse to end Bush's spectacularly disastrous war on Iraq and it didn't.

The Democrats' version of the supplemental has far too many loopholes in it, which could leave tens of thousands of US troops in Iraq indefinitely, and the timeline for withdrawal is far too lax -- August 31, 2008. The Democrats are going to feel good about it, they'll say this is the best they can do, but the best they can do means the war continues, with their imprimatur, for at least another year and a half. I cannot accept that, and neither should anyone in the peace movement.

Our job as a movement not to accept the Democrats' "this is the best we can do, this is what the traffic will bear" posture.

I ask you to join me in demanding - Troops Home in 2007!

Too many Members of Congress, even ones who initially voted against the war in 2002 and heap deserved criticism on Bush for his policies, voted for the supplemental spending bill funding the war, for fear of being smeared as "not supporting the troops." Some Members even speak as if the troops will be stranded in the desert and have to hitchhike home if they vote down the supplemental appropriations bill.

This is cowardly nonsense, and they know it. Congress has appropriated over $450 billion for the war. If there isn't enough money lying around to bring the troops home safely, Congress could take it out of Star Wars "missile defense" or the "Reliable Replacement Warhead" budget or some other Pentagon boondoggle.

There's only one way to support the troops -- bring them home to the warm embrace of their families as soon as possible.

Congress needs to know we demand action now. We cannot wait while more lives are lost and the price tag for Bush's folly soars toward the trillion dollar mark.

Will you help me make sure they get the message?

Peace Action is not advocating 'cut and run'. We call on Bush to swallow his arrogant pride, go the United Nations and ask the international community to help us extract the US military from this no-win occupation before it spreads to Iran and engulfs the entire region in a far more dangerous and deadly conflict.

NEWS BRIEF: "US to attack Iran by end of April", Yahoo News, April 5, 2007

"Kuwait City, April 4 (Xinhua) The US is planning to attack Iran's nuclear reactors and other nuclear facilities by the end of this month, the Kuwait-based Arab Times newspaper reported Wednesday. Citing anonymous sources in Washington, it said that various White House departments had started preparing the political speech to be delivered by the US president later this month, announcing the military attack on Iran. The speech will provide the 'evidence' and the 'justification' for the US to resort to the military option after failing to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions..."

Since June, 2003, President Bush and his Cabinet officials have repeatedly threatened to attack Iran. The President marched soldiers to the Iranian border and then quietly marched them back. The President repeatedly beefed up carrier presence in the oceans off Iran, and then quietly dispersed them once the public threats ceased.

We were told to expect an "October Surprise" in both the 2004 and the 2006 elections, i.e., an attack on Iran.

Therefore, since recent history has truly taught us to be wary, we can only wait to see what will transpire.

Labels: American Troops, Iraq war fiasco, Iraqi quagmire, peace action, soldiers

# posted by HealingMindN @ 4/05/2007 10:07:00 PM