Leaving Iraq 

The process of leaving Iraq must begin now. Peace Action Wisconsin suggests taking these steps:

• Announce an end to the US occupation of Iraq. Begin removing all US troops, private contractors and equipment. Use existing war funds. Leave no US bases.

• Convene a regional conference to develop a security and stabilization force for Iraq. The conference must include Iran, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The war in Iraq threatens the stability of nations throughout the region.

• Have the UN (using mostly Muslim countries) establish a stabilization or peacemaking role if that is the wish of the Iraqi people.

• Bring together all factions in Iraq to sit down and work together to end the violence and develop a political solution.

• Let Iraqis control the future of their own oil industry. No manipulation of Iraqi law by the US for privatization.

• Address the refugee crisis in Iraq and surrounding countries.

• Pay for reconstruction of Iraq by Iraqis.

• Pay reparations to Iraq for loss of life, injuries and property damage.

• Help develop a process of national reconciliation in Iraq.

• Assure Irai economic recovery without the World Bank or IMF imposing “structural adjustment conditions” for loans.

The Surge, The Purge, and the Path to Ending the Occupation of Iraq 

• Bush's "surge" has not reduced violence or created conditions that promote political reconciliation.

• The military assault on Basra was an absolute failure. 

• The attack on Basra had little to do with fighting criminals and terrorists or reducing "sectarian violence." It had everything to do with preventing the Sadrists from scoring a victory in next October's provincial elections.

• The siege of Basra was about  who will control Iraq's oil. Thus it was about the political and economic destiny of the country.

• The Iraqi Army are essentially militias in government uniform. They operate on behalf of al-Maliki in opposition to Muqtada al-Sadra's Mehdi Army, a militia in street clothes.

• The decision by the U.S. and the British to employ air power against civilian neighborhoods  constitutes yet one more in a growing list of war crimes. 

• The greatest obstacle to reconciliation and stability in Iraq is the occupation.

• The struggle to compel  withdrawal of all U.S forces and

 contractors is part of the struggle to reassert democratic control over our own government and economy.

• Funding the war is killing our troops! Bring them home!

Cost of War 

• US taxpayers have spent $522.5 billion for the Iraq war. This could have paid for 4 million affordable housing units. Or it would have provided 5 million homes with renewable electricity. Or it could have paid for 9 million elementary school teachers. Or it could have paid for 71million Head Start places for children.

• The US spends $16 billion a month on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Every US family pays $138 every month toward the costs of the war.

• Halliburton has received $19.3 billion in contracts for work in Iraq.

• $25 billion is the annual cost of the rising price of US oil, a consequence of war.

• The average drop in income of 13 African countries is 3%--a direct result of the rise in oil prices.

• It costs $5 billion for 10 days’ fighting in Iraq.

• By 2017 America will have paid $1 trillion  on the money borrowed to finance the war.

• Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the total cost of the war will be over three trillion dollars. If you taped three trillion $1 bills end-to-end, they’d reach the moon and back over 600 times.

Bush Gang Told 935 Lies Concerning War in Iraq

The Bush gang told  935 lies between Sept. 11 2001 and March 19, 2003. (The Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism counted the lies.)

Bush told 259 of these lies himself. This includes 231 statements claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and 28 that Saddam Hussein had ties to al-Qaida. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was a close second with 254 lies.

            Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others in the administration plotted the war and lied about it. The Pentagon went along willingly. No one in the corporate media challenged the lies.

            In January and February 2003, the people’s mass mobilizations tried to stop the war. No major politicians or business figures participated in them.

By the fall of 2002, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexago, ConocoPhilips, Halliburton and Bechtel were meeting with Cheney,. They were lining up for contracts to “reconstruct” Iraq.

Yellow Gate Women

 A Women in Media and Entertainment Production 

It took a small group of  committed women 19 years to  force out the US Nuclear weapons and US Military base from Greenham Common, a small town in England.

       Yellow Gate Women is an exciting story of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.    It shows the women’s arduous and creative day-to-day work which led to a spectacular victory.  They lived outside the US base for years—no electricity, phones, water. They danced on top of silos, cut out miles of fence, sang erie songs to the military, and threw paint on bombers.

      Irish filmmaker Margaretta D’Arcy shot and assembled a wealth of video-footage when staying at Greenham in the ’80s and ’90s.  Dramatic shots include a night-scene of the US Cruise Missile convoy leaving the base.

       Persistent actions of the women at the yellow gate—from trespassing to cat-and-mouse

tactics to lawsuits—eventually beat the mighty US military.

      In 2006 D’Arcy travels with her son Finn Arden, and his camera. They revisit the sites and  interview old companions who led the stubborn seige of Greenham.     

      Yellow Gate Women ends with two celebrations. They take place in the new commemorative garden built on the historic campsite at Greemham Common.

To purchase this great film, send $10-$15 (sliding scale) to: Welfare Warriors, 2711 W. Michigan, Milwaukee, WI 53208

TV War Analysis “News” Came Straight from the Pentagon

  TV military “analysts.” Many of these so-called analysts also had ties to military contractors and the networks that employed them. The NY Times revealed this scam on 4/20/08. Major networks who engaged in this deception have failed to report the story. Fox has continued to feature commentary by two Pentagon-patsy ex-generals. Nor has Fox disclosed the generals’ conflicts of interest.

On 4/26/08 the Pentagon announced that it has temporarily halted the propaganda program due to "allegations that the Defense Department's relationship with the retired military analysts was improper,"

The networks and cable outlets who used the Pentagon's pap have been silent. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and NBC refused to participate in a discussion of the Pentagon propaganda on NewsHour.  They have ignored FAIR’s request to change their practices so that audiences never again get propaganda passed off as independent analysis.

Several retired general “analysts” had direct financial stakes in the war. General Barry McCaffrey was on the board of Mitretek, Veritas Capital and two Veritas companies, Raytheon Aerospace and Integrated Defense Technologies--all of which have multimillion-dollar government defense contracts.

Our Troops Deserve Better 

Last year Army officials instructed representatives from the VA at Fort Drum NY not to help veterans with their disability paperwork because there was a “conflict of interest.” Soldiers that get help from the VA tend to get higher disability ratings. This means the government owes them more money. The soldiers say they feel betrayed and Americans should be outraged. To tell Secretary of the Army Geren that this is not acceptable and sign a petition go to: act.truemajority.org

 Sources: National Priorities Project; guardian.co.uk/world; Workers World; Peace Action; FAIR; TrueMajority.org

Longshoremen Close 29 Ports to Protest War 

On May 1 Logshoremen shut down all 29 ports on the West Coast for eight hours. The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) had passed a "No Peace No Work Holiday" resolution.  They demanded "an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the withdrawal of US troops from the Middle East."

       The National Association of Letter Carriers, some truckers, students, and movie stars took action also. Longshoremen in Iraq shut down the Ports of Umn Qasr and Khor Alzubair for one hour in support of ILWU and to end the war.