National Anti-War Coalition Calls for Complete Withdrawal from Iraq

For Immediate Release: August 31, 2010
United for Peace and Justice
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

Contact: 
Michael McPhearson, UFPJ Co-Convenor, 973-666-4605, [log in to unmask] 
Phyllis Bennis, UFPJ Steering Committee - 202-234-9382 ext 5206, [log in to unmask]

Any reduction in the number of US troops occupying Iraq
is a good thing. But the occupation is continuing, even
if on a somewhat smaller scale, with 50,000 troops.
Despite a commitment to withdraw "combat brigades,"
these 50,000 are indeed combat troops, "re-missioned"
by the Pentagon and assigned to "training and
assistance." But even Secretary of Defense Gates admits
they will have continuing combat capability and will
continue active counter-terrorism operations. The 4500
Special Forces among them will continue their "capture
or kill" raids while building up the Iraqi Special
Operations Forces like we saw with El Salvador-style
death squads  in the 80's. 

The real transition underway is not from US to Iraqi
control, but from Pentagon to State Department
deployment.  Military resources are being shifted from
Pentagon to State Dept control, thus remaining within
the terms of the US-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement
that calls for all US troops and Pentagon-controlled
mercenaries to leave by the end of 2011.  It is very
likely that the still US-dependent Iraqi government
(whatever government is in place by December 31, 2011)
may well "request" an extension of US troop deployments
in Iraq.  But even if it doesn't, the creation of the
world's largest embassy in Iraq, the size of Vatican
City, with plans for thousands of new military
contractors, armored transport, planes, "rapid
response" forces and other trappings of an army mean
that plans are underway to turn the US presence in Iraq
into a State Dept-run paramilitary operation. Instead
of transforming a military occupation into a diplomatic
mission, we will see the full militarization of US
diplomacy and US diplomats turned into soldiers without
uniforms.

President Obama's speech will likely avoid any terms
remotely close to "mission accomplished." He knows too
well that with violence rising, sectarian divisions as
strong as ever, the parliament unable to create a new
government, corruption sky-high and rising and linked
to CIA-paid assets, oil contracts creating more
violence instead of national wealth, there is no
victory to claim.

And the costs of the Iraq war continue.  Even beyond
the hundreds of billions that caring for injured
veterans will cost, plus the huge debt of reparations
and reconstruction we owe to the people of Iraq, the
current continuing war is stripping our treasury.  The
50,000 troop deployment between now and the end of 2011
will cost more than 12 billion dollars.  That could be
used instead to fund 240,000 new green union jobs.
What makes our country safer?

United for Peace and Justice continues to hold this
Administration accountable to their commitment to end
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to redirect war
dollars to meet underfunded needs at home. On October
2, peace activists will again march on Washington, DC,
joining thousands of civil rights, labor, immigrant
rights, environmental and other progressive
organizations in a unified call for jobs, peace, and
justice. Visit www.onenationforpeace.org for details.

_____________________________________________

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