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Marie Braun of WAMM and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign - Focus on Iraq.
photo © 2004 CircleVision.org |
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Why we say:
Bring the Troops Home Now!
– From a speech given at a Minneapolis protest by Marie Braun of the Twin Cities Peace Campaign/Focus on Iraq.
Background information from the Iraq Peace Action Coalition.
One year after the official end of the war in Iraq, the humanitarian crisis continues - people are still without electricity, clean water, and basic medical care.
Sewage stands in the streets. Reconstruction efforts are minimal. Many Iraqi are afraid to leave their homes or to send their children to school. Thousands of people have been detained (estimates range from 8,500 to15,000), often under harsh conditions. The infamous pictures coming out of Abu Graib tell a harsh story of abuse, torture and humiliation.
And the United States has become the hated occupier, caught in a quagmire. . . with no end in sight.
While it is clear the occupation of Iraq has resulted in increased violence, many continue to say now that we are there, we have no choice but to stay. This conviction is based on the belief U.S. troops staying in Iraq will improve the situation. There is no evidence for this; in fact, the evidence seems to be to the contrary. Rather than stabilizing the country and enhancing the security of the Iraqi people, the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is causing death, suffering, and destruction. Large sections of the population are rising against us, and our military is reacting with indiscriminate force, bombing and shooting. . . and rounding up people simply on suspicion.”
Iraqis need to be in control of their money, their ministries and their military. They need to have the debts of the former regime forgiven and they need a Marshall Plan to help rebuild their country which has been devastated by three wars and 13 years of sanctions. The people need jobs, food, clean water, shelter and health care and opportunities to start small businesses. This will not happen under the occupation.
To those who say now that we are in Iraq, we cannot withdraw; that we must stay the course, historian Howard Zinn reminds us that was exactly what people heard at the start of the Vietnam escalation, when people called for immediate withdrawal. The result of “staying the course” in Vietnam was the death of 58,000 American and several million Vietnamese.”
The simple truth is the United States does not belong in Iraq. It is not our country. The U.S. occupation of Iraq is morally unacceptable, and I am honored to stand with you and say “End the occupation; bring the troops home now.”
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