World Spirit Reflections and Updates

The Senate might take action on Iraq BEFORE the July recess. A number of measures will be introduced in the Senate this week - your Senators need to hear where you stand on these complex issues. We've authored a letter demanding all troops return home within 9 months for you to send but it's also important to be as specific as possible.

All the information about when and what will be voted on is not yet available but there will be myriad opinions regarding how U.S. troops can successfully be deployed from Iraq. Write your Senator and tell them how you want to bring the troops home now!

Below are some interesting points to reference in the letter to your representatives.

• Sen. Levin may offer an amendment for complete troop withdrawal within 120 days.
• Sen.'s Reid and Feingold will likely offer provisions for a 6 month withdrawal with the exception of embassy guards and a small contingent dedicated only to fighting Al Queda.
• Sen. Salazar may offer an amendment to implement some key provisions from the Iraq Study Group Report.
• Sen. Clinton is endorsing an amendment to the revoke the 2002 authorization for the use of force, and asking President Bush to justify why we are still in Iraq to Congress.

We at Peace Action want nothing less than a complete withdrawal in 9 months. Please, take action to bring the troops home in a peaceful and just way by getting in touch with your Senator, NOW. We'll keep you updated when the Senate finally votes.

Sincerely,

Paul Kawika Martin
Organizing, Political and PAC Director
Peace Action & Peace Action Education Fund

Randolph's Note: Iraq is in a shambles. Iraqi streets, businesses, and homes are destroyed. Their economy, health, and well being have been driven into the gutter. U.S. troops stationed there are being driven into the same gutter along with their morale; there is no end in sight as a result of the unholy mess that never should have happened.

It's difficult for me to say, "just bring our troops home." What exactly is the U.S. and/or corporate plan for reparations to this country? There are insurgents exactly because of the mess that the military has caused. We need an altruistic business plan to get Iraq back on its feet.

It's also possible to clean up the depleted uranium weapons dust that people are breathing in every day from the unholy onslaught - with the right scientific minds and resources at work on the problem. (Man man tornados are one solution.) We need to offer the people a complete plan.

Simply demanding to bring U.S. Troops home just doesn't ring quite right in the heads of beligerant rednecks. We need to know how the mess is getting cleaned up.

Labels: good vs. evil, Iraq war fiasco, Iraqi quagmire, President Bush's War, u.s. troops

Maybe our reps actually work for us; it helps to stay positive.

Congress has reached a fork in the road on the war in Iraq. Do they back down to President Bush and grant endless extensions, or will they use real funding power to send back a binding plan to end the war?

Tell your member not to back down to President Bush and to end the war>>

Congress took the right first step by passing their last funding bill setting a timetable for withdrawing our troops from Iraq. But following Bush's veto, the resolve in Washington has started to fade. Some members of Congress have started talking about reverting back to symbolic deauthorization bills. Others are pushing for so-called temporary extensions that give Bush all the money he needs without ever actually bringing a single troop home.

This country needs real action - Congress using their funding power to pass another binding plan and forcing George Bush to actually end this war.

Only massive, direct public pressure will get Congress to choose the right path. So this week, John Edwards is leading the effort to gather 100,000 voices calling on Congress to stand firm and send back a binding plan to end the war. The campaign has already collected nearly 90,000 signatures and we need 10,000 more before delivering to Congress.

No more extensions. No more delays.

Tell Congress not to write President Bush a blank check for an endless war>> http://go.care2.com/e/R9vM/i1bg/U1cM

Always, with appreciation,

Michael Lawley,
Care2 and ThePetitionSite team

Labels: Iraq war fiasco, Iraqi quagmire, President Bush's War, war fiasco

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

Last Friday's vote in the House was a small step toward ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq. While the supplemental war appropriations bill passed by the House was disappointingly weak - it didn't include language to prevent an attack on Iran and included a year and a half timeline for withdrawal with enough loopholes to drive about 60,000 U.S. troops through - it did mark the first time that a majority of the House voted to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by a specific date.

Now the Senate is considering its version of the 2007 supplemental war appropriations bill and time is running out to include a shorter timeline for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and assurances that Bush can't attack Iran without specific Congressional authorization into the final bill. Call your Senators NOW and tell them to include these important provisions in the 2007 supplemental war appropriations bill.

Call on your Senators to bring our troops home in 2007 and to support the Webb Amendment to prohibit the use of funds for military operations in Iran. The Senate is currently set to stop adding amendments at 2:30pm TODAY, so call NOW to support adding the Webb amendment to the 2007 Senate supplemental war appropriations bill.

Sincerely,

Kevin M. Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action Education Fund

Labels: Iraq war fiasco, Iraqi quagmire, war on terror

The average American cannot comprehend the disaster which has overwhelmed the average citizen of Baghdad. This next news story illustrates the unbelievable stress which this genocidal war has forced on the citizens of Baghdad.

NEWS BRIEF: "Marked for death: where tattoos are a barcode on lost relatives", by Ned Parker and Saad Abdul Wahab, Times Online, March 10, 2007

"Tattoos, once the domain of the low-life criminals, hard drinkers and gamblers of Baghdad, now serve a practical purpose for ordinary Iraqis. Middle-class men are getting tattoos to spare their families the misery of visiting morgues and police stations in vain for loved ones abducted by death squads or killed in a bombing. They believe that the markings will act as a human bar-code and help their families to identify them. At least 200 unclaimed bodies are buried every week in Iraq."

Can you believe this kind of practical macabre thinking and planning? So many people are being killed every week in Baghdad that at least 200 bodies cannot be identified. Therefore, people are turning to tattoos as a means by which a loved one can identify their dead body!

These people have lost so much hope that they expect to be murdered soon!

Can you know understand how it can be true that the average citizen throughout Iraq are now wishing that the old "repressive" regime of Saddam Hussein could come back?

Cutting Edge has long taught that, in these most deceptive days, you must look to the opposite end of the public rhetoric to discover the truth. Nowhere is this principle more appropriate than this Iraqi War! Please consider:

1) President Bush says that he ordered the invasion of Iraq to "liberate" the people and bring peace.

The reality is that this invasion has thrust the citizens of Iraq into an oppression of all-out civil war and wanton murder. The only "peace" these poor citizens know now is the "peace of the grave".

2) President Bush said that he ordered the invasion of Iraq so that Saddam could not use his WMD against his neighboring countries.

The reality is that Bush was deliberately lying. Saddam had abandoned his WMD program shortly after the 1991 Gulf War.

3) President Bush said that he only wants force "democracy" upon Iraq -- whether they want it or not!

The reality is that Bush has forced a Depleted Uranium genocide upon all of Iraq and surrounding countries at least 1,000 miles away from the battlefields. Within 20 more years, Iraq and Afghanistan will be unlivable, with the vast majority of its citizens dead or dying.

We can only read this news article and weep.

Labels: inhuman torture, insecurity, Iraq war fiasco, Iraqi quagmire

While we were all disappointed to see the Senate's lack of action to stop U.S. escalation in Iraq, last week's Senate skirmish has given us insight on how to proceed in the House. The White House's fight to stop a vote or even a real debate on escalation in the Senate has shown that the hawks are on the run.

Because of the Senate's impotence last week, we need to focus on the House this week. The House of Representatives will be debating Iraq policy all week and voting on H.Con.Res. 63 to disapprove of escalation on Friday. Your Representative needs to hear from you on this important issue; Email your representative now and urge them to step up and lead us out of the quagmire in Iraq!

Ask your representative to take two important steps to bringing our troops home:

1. Tell them to send a strong message of disapproval to the President by voting against escalation this week. While the non-binding resolution (H.Con.Res. 63) being voted this week on won't end the occupation, it will help to build bi-partisan consensus and momentum to really support our troops by bringing them home.
2. Urge your representative to cosponsor H.R. 746 , the binding "Safe and Orderly Withdrawal from Iraq Act" introduced by Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA). This bill would start withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq within 30 days of passage and requires that all U.S. military and contracted forces be out of Iraq within six months.

Given the cowardly acquiescence of Senate Republicans to the White House last week, it is especially important that we get House Republicans to vote against escalation this week. Voting against escalation will send a strong message to leadership that as our representatives they're obligated to listen to the people - and the people want to end the war!

The Americans who volunteered for military service as well as the people of Iraq are counting on us to end the occupation as soon as possible. Taking two minutes to email your representative to vote against the escalation and cosponsor H.R. 746 is a simple way that you can help those who are counting on us to get them out of harm's way.

Sincerely,

Kevin M. Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action Education Fund

Labels: civil action, civil war, Iraq war fiasco, Iraqi quagmire, national debt, war on terror