International ANSWER – 2004-05-14 09:05:13
http://www.answercoalition.org/campaigns/j5/index.html#call
A Call for Emergency Protests — Saturday, June 5, 2004
March from the White House to the Pentagon
Mobilizations in San Francisco and Los Angeles
The outcome of Bush’s war and occupation of Iraq will have a significance that will span the globe and last a generation. Bush and Cheney know that their “vision” of endless war – aimed at destroying any government anywhere on the planet that refuses to obey the dictates of Washington – turns on the increasingly bloody battle being waged against the Iraqi resistance.
From occupied Haiti to occupied Palestine and everywhere else, people recognize the global importance of the confrontation in Iraq.
The U.S. war and occupation of Iraq is a disaster for the people there and here, a disaster that the Bush administration wants to escalate.
It is not only US troops that are dying but those from Latin America and from other countries in Bush’s “coalition of the willing.” Thousands more have been wounded. The war is costing more than 300 million dollars ($300,000,000) every day, money that is transferred from working people in the US to the pockets of arms manufacturers and corporate war profiteers. It is a war that is destroying an entire country and the lives of the Iraqi people — already victimized for more than a decade by sanctions.
The eyes of the world have been focused in recent weeks on the Pentagon siege of Fallujah. More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in that city of 200,000 just since mid-April. Thousands more were wounded. The Pentagon command ordered troops to fire on ambulances trying to take wounded people to hospitals.
In the month of April alone, 130 US soldiers have been killed with an unknown number of wounded — a large number of whom are suffering from severe brain injuries or missing limbs.
Photos of US Torture Victims
Iraqi civilians who have been corralled into the infamous Abu Ghraib prison are being tortured and interrogated by the U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency operatives, as well as by so-called civilian contractors.
Pictures of Iraqis, stripped naked, forced to lie in piles of human bodies, forced to perform or simulate sexual acts with each other, and made to stand on a box, hooded with electrodes attached with the threat of electrocution, have shocked the people of the Middle East and the world.
These are not the acts of a few “rogue” soldiers, but instead were carried out under instruction from higher officials at the prison in “military intelligence” who then further torture and interrogate their terrified and brutalized prisoners.
The US military has raided many villages and towns in Iraq, separating families and taking away all men and boys, and is now holding 10,000 Iraqis civilians hostage, without any charge or POW status. This is nothing other than a sick replay of the US “pacification” program in Vietnamese villages more than thirty years ago.
The Pentagon and White House’s cynical disregard for human life, both the Iraqi people and the rank and file U.S. soldiers who have been sent to subdue them, is stunning by any standard. The people of the United States must expose multi-millionaire “blue-blood” politicians sending working class young people to kill and be killed in pursuit of their right-wing fantasy of world domination. The whole world must know that they do not act in our name.
Bring the Troops Home Now!
The Bush administration is growing ever more isolated and exposed as other countries, including Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, are withdrawing their troops in the face of growing public outrage within their own countries.
World renowned historian Howard Zinn, author of the Peoples History of the United States, speaks directly of the need for an immediate withdrawal for Iraq.
“In light of this, any discussion of ‘What do we do now?’ must start with the understanding that the present U.S. military occupation is morally unacceptable. The suggestion that we simply withdraw from Iraq is met with laments: ‘We mustn’t cut and run. . . . We must stay the course. . . . Our reputation will be ruined. . . .’ That is exactly what we heard when, at the start of the Vietnam escalation, some of us called for immediate withdrawal. The result of staying the course was 58,000 Americans and several million Vietnamese dead.”
From the White House to the Pentagon
On June 5, people from around the United States are converging at the White House and marching to the Pentagon to demand Bring the Troops Home Now!
There will also be large antiwar protests that day in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities on June 5th.
While Bush is slipping in the polls and the people increasingly turn against the war, it is critical that the antiwar movement act now to turn the up the pressure. Waiting for the November election or the possible election of John Kerry would be a colossal mistake. Kerry only promises to send more troops to Iraq rather than end this debacle.
The people of the US must take action — as they did during the Vietnam Era — to stop this criminal war.
Your help is needed now more than ever. Volunteers are working all over the country mobilizing for the June 5 demonstrations. Funds are urgently needed to help cover the costs of leaflets and posters to get the word out, bus transportation, and all of the other expenses associated with a mass demonstration.
Now is the time to act! Join us in national emergency protests on June 5!
VoteNoWar Resource Center
To serve activists around the country who are organizing in their communities, who getting the word out to Bring the Troops Home Now! and who are building the growing peace movement, we are happy to announce the new VoteNoWar Resource Center! Visit the Center to get petitions and flyers for Bring the Troops Home Now committees, as well as the brand new VoteNoWar and Bring the Troops Home Now! t-shirts and bumper stickers.
On June 5th, people from many different communities will come together in Washington, DC and elsewhere, demanding and end to occupation and oppression. To read and endorse the call to action, click here
