<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">The following petition is not all inclusive (by leaving aside many domestic policies), but it's a pretty good list of the exactions Obama has caused and why he should be removed from office—if not worse. --mkb<div><br></div><div><table class="nodetitle" style="position: static; z-index: auto; "><tbody><tr><td><h2 class="title"><a href="http://warisacrime.org/primary">We Will Oppose Obama As Long As He Supports Wa</a>r</h2>
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<div class="content"><p><a href="http://warisacrime.org/user/register" target="_blank">REGISTER</a> and then <a href="http://warisacrime.org/petition/56390" target="_blank">ADD YOUR NAME<br></a></p><p>We the undersigned share with <a href="http://pollingreport.com/afghan.htm">nearly two-thirds</a> of our fellow Americans the conviction that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be ended and that <a href="http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/85.php?nid=&id=&pnt=85&lb=btot">overall military spending</a>
should be dramatically reduced. This has been our position for years
and will continue to be, and we take it seriously. We vow not to
support President Barack Obama for renomination for another term in
office, and to actively seek to impede his war policies unless and until
he reverses them. </p><p>Since he became president, Obama has had three opportunities to work
with Congress to reduce military spending, but instead has championed <a href="http://warisacrime.org/content/obamas-proposals-increase-military-spending-each-year">increases</a> in that spending each time, despite the fact that this spending represents a clear <a href="http://davidswanson.org/content/its-jobs-or-wars-not-both">threat</a>
to the economic future of our country. He has continued as well to try
to hide the true costs of the wars by funding them with off-the-books <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/161/end-the-abuse-of-supplemental-budgets-for-war/">supplemental</a> spending bills, despite the fact that he campaigned against this very practice.<br><br>The President has escalated a war on Afghanistan in which rising civilian <a href="http://warisacrime.org/aww">deaths and atrocities</a> have become routine. <br><br>He has <a href="http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones">given</a> the CIA even greater freedom of action to launch lethal drone strikes against civilian houses in Pakistan on <a href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53194">mere assumption</a>
of some connection with Taliban or other organizations, despite the
warning from the U.S. Ambassador in late 2009 -- revealed in a Wikileaks
<a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/wikileaks_exposes_the_danger_of_pakistans_nukes_20110113/">cable</a> -- that such attacks could "destabilize" the Pakistani government, despite many <a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2011/01/02/report-cia-drones-killed-over-2000-mostly-civilians-in-pakistan-since-2006/">reports</a>
that civilians, including children, are disproportionately victims, and
despite the contention of the United Nations and many U.S. allies that
this practice is <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37474231/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/">illegal</a>.<br><br>Obama has approved an increase in covert operations by <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010092106707">CIA-controlled</a> Afghan troops into Pakistan, and his administration has remained silent while the U.S. command in Afghanistan leaked to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/world/asia/21intel.html">New York Times</a> plans for new Special Operations Forces raids into Pakistan aimed at Afghan Taliban targets.<br><br>The
President has expanded the use of Special Operations Forces (SOF),
operating in virtually total secrecy and without any accountability to
Congress, in one country after another. SOF troops are presently in
some <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304965.html">75 nations</a> -- 15 more than when Obama took office.<br> </p><p>President Obama has, on a later schedule than he campaigned on, finally reduced U.S. troop presence in Iraq. But he <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/02/27/62930/obama-to-extend-iraq-withdrawal.html">has not</a>
fully withdrawn U.S. combat forces from Iraq or ended U.S. combat
there, his claims to have done so notwithstanding. His vice president
has suggested, without correction by the President, the <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Biden-in-Iraq-for-Talks-on-US-Troop-Withdrawal-113447149.html">possibility</a>
of a U.S. military presence in the country even after the deadline for
withdrawal under the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal agreement, if only through the
use of military contractors.<br><br>The Obama administration has announced plans to form an army of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/world/middleeast/19withdrawal.html">mercenary troops</a>
from private military contractors in Iraq which is to have its own air
force and its own fleet of mine-resistant military vehicles. The plan
includes continued contracts with the company formerly called <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/7952/us-reinstates-blackwater-in-iraq.html">Blackwater</a>, despite the knowledge that it was guilty of atrocities against civilians in that country, and despite the openly declared <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0917/p99s01-duts.html">opposition</a> of the Iraqi government to such a continued role.<br><br>Obama has overseen <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/world/07weapons.html">increased</a> weapons <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091306102.html">sales</a> to foreign nations, and assisting in those sales has been a major <a href="http://warisacrime.org/content/us-embassy-norway-o-got-peace-prize-had-lived-and-breathed-1-year-making-norway-lockheed-cus">function</a> of his State Department. He has approved <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/21/more-money-fewer-nukes.html">increased</a>
funding for work on nuclear weapons, even while supporting an arms
control treaty. He has established a policy of potential nuclear <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1263914/Obamas-nuclear-strike-policy-softened-Iran-North-Korea.html">first strike</a> against Iran or North Korea.<br><br>President
Obama has argued for the justness of war-making in widely watched
speeches from the Oval Office and in Oslo, Norway, where he was <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/12/obamas_nobel_peace_prize_speec.html">accepting</a> a Nobel Peace Prize. He has, in his Oval Office speech last August, <a href="http://warisacrime.org/content/false-statements-president-obvamas-oval-office-speech">defended</a> false statements that took our nation into the current wars and false statements that have prolonged them.<br><br>The
President has supported sanctions against Iran and Syria that punish
the people, especially children, and not the leadership, of those
countries. He has sent ships and missiles to Iran's border. He has
risked hostilities with North Korea through the ongoing <a href="http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2010/12/navy-makes-move-today-on-jeju-island.html">construction</a> of new military bases in South Korea and provocative war games exercises. His administration has <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/29-9">helped</a> a military coup succeed in Honduras.<br><br>President
Obama has sought to allow more Israeli settlements in Palestinian
territories. He has protected Israel's killing of activists on a
humanitarian aid ship, not even protesting at the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/un-factfinding-mission-sa_n_743873.html">murder</a> of an unarmed American youth. He issued a presidential <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/25/presidential-memorandum-child-soldiers-prevention-act">memorandum</a>
on October 25, 2010, giving U.S. approval for the use of child soldiers
by Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen. He
has backed Indonesian armed forces that assassinated civilian activists
in late 2009. He has expanded the U.S. military presence in Colombia,
Costa Rica, Haiti, Guam, Italy, and Diego Garcia, as well as overseeing
an enormous military base construction project in Afghanistan.<br><br>President
Obama has not closed the prison at Guantanamo Bay and continues to
maintain a network of detention facilities in Afghanistan through which
prisoners, according to the most recent <a href="http://warisacrime.org/ongoingtorture">information</a> available, are still being subjected to harsh treatment. He has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/21/obama-national-archives-s_n_206189.html">claimed</a>
the right to imprison people, including American citizens, indefinitely
without charge or trial, thus further cementing in place the
elimination of the rights of prisoners of war and the elimination of the
right of habeas corpus for anyone, as well as the rights found in the
Fourth through Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The
President has claimed the power of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/target-of-obama-era-rendi_n_256499.html">rendition</a>. His CIA Director <a href="http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/2/9/102514/0119">Leon Panetta</a> and his senior advisor <a href="http://warisacrime.org/node/42892">David Axelrod</a> have asserted, without correction by the President, that the President maintains the power <a href="http://warisacrime.org/ongoingtorture">to torture</a>.
In the recent case of Gulet Mohamed, the Obama administration, for a
time, claimed the power to forbid an American to reenter the country,
absent any conviction or even any charge of a crime, and apparently <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/06/kuwait">collaborated</a> with Kuwait to torture that American. The President has also openly claimed the power to order the <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/assassinations">assassination</a> of Americans abroad. In Iraq, the U.S. military has continued to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/8082223/Wikileaks-Iraq-War-Logs-show-US-ignored-torture-allegations.html">work with</a> and protect from accountability an Iraqi military that is known to regularly use torture.<br><br>The President has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202771.html?hpid=topnews">expanded</a> the use of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04sun1.html?_r=1">warrantless spying</a>. Under his leadership, the FBI has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR2010120403710.html">infiltrated</a> peace groups and <a href="http://www.stopfbi.net/about">raided</a> the homes of peace activists. It has set up and <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/149160/why_are_the_feds_cultivating_their_own_%22homegrown_terrorists%22">entrapped</a>
in terrorism charges people whose training and motivation came largely
or even entirely from the FBI. He has supported the re-authorization of
the <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/obama-backs-expiring-patriot-act-spy-provisions/">PATRIOT Act</a>, which strips away Americans' civil liberties.<br><br>President Obama, in direct violation of the Nuremberg Charter, a U.S. treaty commitment, has publicly <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/obama-admin-no-charges-ag_n_187837.html">instructed</a>
his Attorney General not to prosecute individuals responsible for
crimes, including torture. His administration has worked hard to <a href="http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush">provide</a> retroactive immunity to corporations engaged in <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638765474658467.html">warrantless spying</a> and individuals engaged in sanctioning <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a7UiIXtMlcyk&refer=home/pp%C2%A0/p">torture</a>.
He has kept secret a vast trove of documents, photos, and videos
pertaining to prisoner abuse. He has advanced unprecedented claims of <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/obamas-state-secrets-overreach040909.html">secrecy powers</a> in defending the crimes of his predecessor. President Obama's White House has put great <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/obama-spain-bush-torture-prosecution/">pressure</a> on European states not to investigate or prosecute U.S. war crimes.<br><br>This president has <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373407/ns/politics-white_house/">restricted</a> the release of the names of White House visitors and has pursued the prosecution and punishment of government <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/05/25/whistleblowers">whistleblowers</a>
more aggressively than any previous president. His administration is
responsible for the cruel and unusual lengthy confinement in a 6' by 12'
cell, prior to any trial, of alleged whistleblower <a href="http://warisacrime.org/content/how-bradley-manning-really-being-treated">Bradley Manning</a>.
His vice president, Joe Biden, has publicly labeled an Australian
journalist, Julian Assange, a "terrorist." President Obama has used a
private propaganda <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0809/Pentagon_hires_Rendon_Group_to_screen_reporters_.html">firm</a>
that had been exposed planting lies in Iraqi media, to screen potential
embedded reporters for coverage of the U.S. military. He has used the
military to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/bp-coast-guard-officers-b_n_581779.html">restrict</a> reporting by American journalists on an oil spill in American waters.<br><br>Perhaps
most perilously, President Obama has claimed the right to engage in
many of these activities without the authorization of Congress. He has
even claimed the power first developed by his predecessor to rewrite new
laws through the extra-Constitutional use of presidential <a href="http://www.coherentbabble.com/listBHOall.htm">signing statements</a>.
Expanded powers that are not opposed now will be far more difficult to
oppose later with another president able to claim past precedent.<br><br>The
President's own deficit commission recommended cuts of $100 billion to
the military budget. The United States spends about $1 trillion each
year on the military, through a variety of departments, and has spent
over $1 trillion already on the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Over half
of every U.S. dollar of income tax is going to war making. The
Department of Defense budget alone is larger than the military
expenditures of the next largest 16 militaries in the world combined.
That budget could be cut by 85% and still be the largest in the world.
In addition to the lessening of hostility toward our country that would
result from a significant decrease in U.S. military presence around the
world, by shifting our financial resources we could create jobs, green
energy, top quality free education, public transportation and
infrastructure. We could also end all talk of reducing our Social
Security or health coverage. We intend to support public servants who
put our money where it serves the public.<br><br>We are not concerned
with whether President Obama is acting enthusiastically or reluctantly
in pursuing a militaristic policy abroad and more repression of dissent
at home. It matters little whether he is submitting to powerful forces
or freely following his preferred course. We do not elect his soldiers
or spies, his advisors, his campaign funders, or the owners of our major
media outlets. We elect the president. We will not support his
nomination for another term, and we believe that a large proportion of
Americans who voted for him in 2008 will not do so again unless he
reverses the most egregious policies to which we have referred --
especially by taking decisive steps to end the war on Afghanistan and to
make deep cuts in the military and war budgets.</p></div></div></body></html>