END THE OCCUPATION F IRAQBRING THE TROOPS HOME Saturday 19th March 2005 Central London and internationally More details to follow nearer the time... 12.01.05 16 Democrats in the House of Representatives called for withdrawal in this LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH FROM 16 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS By Rep. Lynn Woolsey and 15 others The Honorable George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President, We write to urge you to take immediate steps to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Although the initial invasion of Iraq may have occurred with minimal troop deaths, the subsequent occupation of the country has been anything but successful. Already more than 1,300 American troops have lost their lives since the war began on March 19, 2003. At least 10,000 American troops have been injured as well, and it is impossible to know exactly how many thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed. Despite the enormity of the war's casualties, the Iraqi insurgency continues to grow stronger with every passing day. Iraq is no closer to becoming a stable democracy today than it was two years ago, as evidenced in recent weeks by the daily torrent of insurgent attacks on American forces and Iraqi civilian leaders. On January 4th, insurgents assassinated Ali Haidari, the governor of the Iraqi province that includes Baghdad. Just as devastating to the prospect of democracy, on December 30th, al-Jazeera satellite channel reported that all 700 electoral workers in Mosul quit their posts out of fear of being killed. Two weeks later, on January 10th, the entire 13-member electoral commission in the Anbar province, just west of Baghdad, resigned after being threatened by insurgents. If even Iraqi election officials fear for their lives, how can we possibly expect Iraqi citizens to feel safe going to the polls? How can we continue to put our own troops in harm's way, the continued targets for Iraq's thousands of malcontent insurgents? It has become clear that the existence of more than 130,000 American troops stationed on Iraqi soil is infuriating to the Iraqi people -especially because Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction and did not have a connection to the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 or to the al Qaeda terrorist organization. Indeed, the very presence of Americans in Iraq is a rallying point for dissatisfied people in the Arab world. The events of the last two years have not only intensified the rage of the extremist Muslim terrorists, they have also ignited civil hostilities in Iraq that have made Americans and Iraqis substantially less safe. Therefore, by removing our troops from the country, we will remove the main focus of the insurgents' rage. Again, while it may be logistically difficult to immediately remove every American soldier, we urge you to take immediate action to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. This is the only way to truly support our troops. Thank you for your consideration of this request. Sincerely, Representatives Lynn Woolsey (CA-06) 202-225-5161 Danny Davis (IL-07) 202-225-5006 Lane Evans (IL-17) 202-225-5905 Sam Farr (CA-17) 202-225-2861 Raul Grijalva (AZ-07) 202-225-2435 Alcee Hastings (FL-23) 202-225-1313 Maurice Hinchey (NY-22) 202-225-6335 Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-02) 202-225-0773 Dennis Kucinich (OH-10) 202-225-5871 Barbara Lee (CA-09) 202-225-2661 John Lewis (GA-05) 202-225-3801 Jim McDermott (WA-07) 202-225-3106 Grace Napolitano (CA-38) 202-225-5256 Major Owens (NY-11) 202-225-6231 Jose Serrano (NY-16) 202-225-4361 Pete Stark (CA-13) 202-225-5065 message understood claire... well clearly this is just another rubish protest orchestrated by anti war protesters .. i admire people that wish to find alternative means to sort the worlds problems out. But this is (as usual) just jumping on a band wagon. http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.main/ Things are clearly passing anti war people by. The letter is not only outdated but clearly misses vital points out .. just to perpetuate a anti war stance. IMHO your supporting killers and people that don't hold any of your values at all.. why are you doing this ?. Your not against the iraqi war, just war .. this is fine and i admire that. The problem is your acusations on the whole are completly wrong ... Fight for alternative options other than war..but don't drag current conflicts into your Point of view just for something too attack.
Thats very droll, but completly missing my point. I understand this kind of talk.. and almost can pre empt it. So yeah picking up your point the American goverment has systematically killed hundreds if not thousands of innocent civillians in their imperialistic quest for global control..... ho hum..
Matthew if you'd have read my post properly you would have seen that the letter quoted was a letter from members of the US congress to the president dated January 05. It isn't from anti-war protesters... it was for info only. You have not and still do not understand the anti-war movement and I for one don't have the inclination to discuss it with you. But feel free to voice your opinions, but a little more respectfully would be nice Matt. Cheers Claire
I never thought it was from a anti war protestor.. this just again highlights what i am trying too say claire.. Imagine Greenpeace stating GM food is quite good and perfectly safe for humans and is not the death to the enviroment they claim. This is never going to happen is it. I am only saying .. Distinguish between being against war or just that the the iraq war was wrong.. . If anything claire i am anti war , and would love a day when speach could solve all the worlds problems..but i would not go along to this kind of demonstration if i had come too the conclusion that the iraq war was wrong... Is any of this making sense....
All the rest served no purpose imho..this imho is whats wrong with the anti war movement they can't just say 'no more war' and then explain ways that they would change things.. please enlighten this poor fellow..and stop me from thinking that the anti war movement is not all heat and no light. maybe if you could explain the anti war movement i might be able to explain my point a bit better..
I know you have listened.... but have you actually heard anything me, dok, zonk, paul, showmet, koolaid, peace-phoenix, etc etc have been discussing on numerous "war / anti-war" threads over the past *thinks* MONTHS (if not years before you were around)? Do we have to cover the same old ground? If yes... then let someone else take over cos I have better things to do with my time than be misunderstood by you....... again! Take it easy... Claire
I don't want pages and pages and heated debates on it http://www.stopwar.org.uk/about.asp i can read.. forget i said that bit because its not realy what i am getting at .. no claire.. i understand it all gets old.. why do you think i posted theat thread asking too move on.... I don't misunderstand claire and realise people don't want to go over and over things..i know i quoted you but it was not just for you. if you have heard what i am trying to say before.. humour me please with giveing me a generic answer. If you don't know what i am talking about then ok take it easy.
quote mathew =if anything claire" i am anti war ". forgive me mathew if i am wrong on this assumption " but on another thread "you stated that you were pro war. is this still the case ? if yes ( why) then say you are anti war . this is confusing . /peace /
Matthew, I'm still at a loss to understand your arguments, or why they have any relevance. You've noted a distinction between being against the Iraq war and being anti-war in general. I'm with you this far. But I fail to see why it matters. Naturally not everyone in the anti-war movement is against all war, but they're marching alongside people who are to speak out against this war. Why is that wrong? It's the same as saying people shouldn't have marched against poll tax, unless they believe all tax is wrong....
Ya know, I was just watchin the news on the telly, and it said that George W. Bush *spits* is planning on spending over 11 TRILLION dollars on the goddamn war on Irag. Of course, he has to cut down on "not so important essentials", including EDUCATION, MEDICATION, EMPLOYMENT, etc etc. My thoughts: what a fuckin moron. Well, this is all but expected who a man whose daddy once said "Think, it aint illegal YET". Man, It must suck to live in America now. Maybe some of you guys should come over to Canada. C'mon, you can come to my house! We can party! (BYOB) Anywhoo, that's just what I think... Goddamn, what a moron. Well, that's my Moma Mike P.S. Please stop arguing. You're tearing this family apart
*takes deep breath* *tries to remain focused* look out for sweeping generalisations :& 1.Too be against war i can understand and if thats they way you wish to be, fine. 2.Looking at the facts and comeing to the conclusion that this current war is not right.. fine i can understand that. Being this way (2) but also going to protests and demonstrations organised by groups that are completly unquestionable against any war (1) ever and never see it as the right thing to do..and that use one side of the arguement to further their quite simple original belief (1) is not right. IMHO and not to end up like a mentalamatthewasaurous i personaly have thought that this current iraq was is/was justified.. Now people that hold view 1 wrogly and quite patronisgly state that i am wrong and a idiot (well my view point..me as well probably hehehe) but state that they are 2.. They say they have used their inteligence been reasonable and not biased .. wich possibly they have been. http://www.cnduk.org/ http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.htm http://www.peace-not-war.org/ were are their alternatives to war Taking this quite simple belief and transfering it over to a pro war stance .. being unquestionably pro war is no better either.. When it comes down too it, i can't be on the side of the anti war groups.. because i have not heard what they want to do in the real world and not in the utopian fantasy they live in.. I would love to be in that world but their are and probaly always will be wars going on for one reason or another... So yeah i probaly am guilty of simplistic idiot thought for attaching myself to being pro war , because then i would think people that are anti war see my point of view the same way i do of them ... What i think dok, zonk, paul, showmet, koolaid, peace-phoenix, etc etc don't wish to be seen as is having no reasoned arguement for protesting this current war .. so imho say that thay have questioned this war and don't see it as right, but just going from what peace-phoenix has said recently, he sees WW2 (against his better principles/morality) as acceptable .. but i would and have put it too him, i am sure documentation.. greater communication like that is in todays climate, it could be found that ww2 was not only illegal but the majority him and other tell me this war is.. but you/we don't dishonour millions of peoples lives by saying this, so we have ww1 for that as most of them are dead (we can say this) .. What we have now is, as it is happening discusions bebates etc etc along the same lines that have always been out their.. we just try and justify our simple point of view with a complicated one.. The goverments don't do this, quite rightly and things move on and happen .. like the elections, like the talk of when our troops are comeing home etc etc .. do the anti war people take this on board NO. So i am pro war .. with all its faults but wish i could jump on board with the anti war groups.. but i can't. I remain as passionate and careing as a normal human being should be .. but yeah don't we all get misrepresented . erm well what do you think now.. hahahahaha
Are you saying I have no reasoned argumen with which to oppose this war? If so, that's the most arrogant and ignorant piece of bullshit I've ever heard. Just because you don't agree with people matthew, it doesn't mean that they don't have a rational argument. Now please keep my name out of this discussion because I'm tired of wasting my breath on you.
That's just a purile argument, with no logic to it at all. Why is it wrong to join together with people who agree over a specific issue, but not over everything? No one's going to agree over everything, that's why many protests are single issue campaigns. There's nothing wrong with that. For example, anti-racism campaigns are supported by the radical left, and by the Tories alike. They both have their different reasons for joining the campaigns, but that's not important, what is important is that they're standing together against racism to form a stronger voice. Anyone with half a braincell can seperate their own ideas from the wider movement and still participate in it....
