March Against the War on March 21
Bring All the Troops Home Now!
During his presidential campaign, Obama's popularity soared with the promise that he would bring the troops home from Iraq within 16 months. But his recently announced plan would continue the illegal occupation indefinitely. It would leave up to 50,000 troops in that war-torn country for who knows how many years. And it would delay the withdrawal of the first batch of troops for 18 months. The remaining forces would no longer be called "combat troops" but rather "advisory and assistance brigades". Make no mistake, all U.S. troops are "combat troops" and these forces, along with thousands of U.S. contractors and mercenaries are to remain to staff U.S. bases and the mega-Embassy, shore up the puppet government, conduct "counter insurgency" operations, and ensure continued protection of US economic interests. The numbers can go up or down at any time and the draw down time-table can be revised.
"When President Obama said we were going to get out within 16 months, some people heard, 'get out,' and everyone's gone. But that is not going to happen," said a senior military officer.
This plan doesn't "leave Iraq to its people and responsibly end this war," as Obama claimed during his Feb. 24 Congressional address. Instead, it entrenches the U.S. in a brutal counter-insurgency war for oil that helped to bankrupt our country and sends an endless stream of Americans to continue dying and killing. It prolongs the U.S. policy of domination over Iraq, and the region.
At the same time, Secretary of Defense Gates and President Obama announced their plan to deploy an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan - that's a 50 percent increase - despite the fact that the Department of Defense has no exit strategy. Only 34% of the American people approved this move, according to a CBS/Washington Post Feb. 17 poll. And the U.S. is expanding the covert war run by the CIA inside neighboring Pakistan with increasing numbers of aerial bombing attacks. President Obama is maintaining the fundamental strategic orientation by keeping the Bush team - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Generals Petraeus and Odierno - on the job to oversee and manage the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations.
We don't need phony time-tables for withdrawal some day. We demand Out Now! Let the people of these nations determine their own destiny and control their own resources.
The U.S. government, the American people, the Afghanis, and the Iraqi people need to hear our voices of opposition on March 21!
We cannot afford another quagmire.
Please join us in Washington, SF, and LA on March 21!
Meanwhile, the U.S.-funded occupation and blockade of Gaza continues after a brutal weeks-long assault in which over 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians including 412 children, were killed, and the economy and infrastructure were destroyed. Even United Nations schools, food storage warehouses, and shelters were not spared from the onslaught of human rights crimes and violations of international law. Even now, the Israeli government refuses to open the borders to allow humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials. At the same time, plans to add 73,000 units to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank have accelerated.
The people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine are struggling to rid themselves of deadly, racist occupations. Let us stand together with them, and say:
Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine; Occupation is a Crime!
The March 21 united mass actions are also needed to connect the massive war funding to the economic meltdown - to demand jobs for all; a moratorium on foreclosures; rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure; guaranteed, quality health care for all; quality education, an end to the ICE raids and deportations; and funding for sorely needed social programs. So long as trillions of dollars continue to be spent on wars, occupations, and bailouts to the banks and corporate elite, the domestic needs of the people of the U.S. can never be met.
The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations has joined a broadening alliance of hundreds of coalitions, organizations, and networks in a united MARCH 21 NATIONAL COALITION to mobilize people across the United States to take part in a March on the Pentagon on the sixth year of the military invasion and occupation of the Iraq War: Saturday, March 21. Demonstrations will also be held on that date in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities across the U.S.
Bring ALL the Troops Home NOW!
Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!
End U.S. support for the occupation of Palestine!
No war on Iran or Pakistan!
For updated information on the March 21demonstrations (buses, flyers, endorsers, etc.), and the coalition, including labor unions, peace and anti-war groups, student, veterans' and community groups and more, go to www.pentagonmarch.org
The actions are needed to assure the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and other countries threatened by Washington's expansionist policies that tens of millions of people in this country support their right to settle their own destinies without U.S. interventions, occupations and murderous wars. International law recognizes - and we demand - that the U.S. respect the right to self-determination. We reject any notion that the U.S. is the world's self-appointed cop.
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