[Peace-discuss] Out now (fwd)

[C. G. Estabrook]

	U.S. Relief Group Calls for Iraq Withdrawal
	Fri Dec 24, 9:15 AM ET
	Jim Lobe, OneWorld US

WASHINGTON, Dec 24 (IPS) - One of the oldest U.S. overseas relief
organizations has called for the United States to immediately withdraw
from Iraq in light of the continuing carnage and Washington's failure to
restore basic services or revive the country's economy.

The statement by the Philadelphia-based American Friends Service Committee
(AFSC) came a day after U.S. forces suffered their worst losses from a
single incident in Iraq when an apparent suicide bomber blew himself up at
U.S. military base in Mosul, killing at least 22 people, including 14 U.S.
soldiers and four U.S. contractors. The bombing brings to 1,034 the number
of U.S. troops killed in hostile action since the March 2003 invasion.

It also came as two new polls showed that U.S. public opinion has become
more pessimistic about the situation in Iraq and significantly more
skeptical about the decision to go to war.

A majority of 56 percent of respondents in a Washington Post-ABC News poll
released Tuesday concluded that, given the cost in military casualties,
the conflict "was not worth the fight." That marked an eight-point
increase since last summer, and, as the Post pointed out, "the first time
a decisive majority of people have reached this conclusion."

The decision by AFSC's board of directors may feed the sense that the war
has been a serious mistake, even though the same poll found that 58
percent respondents still believe that Washington should keep its military
forces -- now numbering over 140,000 -- in Iraq until "civil order is
restored."

A poll released this week by the Pew Research Center for the People & the
Press found that 56 percent of its respondents believed that U.S. troops
should stay "until the situation has stabilized," against 40 percent who
said they believe U.S. troops should be brought home now.

True to its Quaker roots, AFSC, which had an office in Baghdad
coordinating relief efforts -- from March, 2003 until last September when
the agency relocated its two expatriate workers there to Amman, Jordan --
originally opposed the decision to go to war as "unnecessary, immoral and
unwise." The agency was forced to relocate amid a wave of kidnappings
carried out by insurgents.

But it subsequently expressed concern that an abrupt U.S. withdrawal after
the ouster of the Ba'athist regime might have further destabilized the
country and increase the danger to its people. As the AFSC board made
clear in its statement issued Wednesday, however, it has again reassessed
its position.

"We are convinced that the presence of U.S. troops is a destabilizing
force in the region and contributes to the increasing loss of life," the
board stated. "We are anguished by the damage and lasting scars we are
causing to another generation of American soldiers who have been asked to
serve in another war in a distant place for questionable ends."

In addition to U.S. casualties, the board noted the recent study by U.S.
and British researchers published last month by the British medical
journal, 'The Lancet', that estimated that as many as 100,000 Iraqi
civilians have been killed since the U.S. invasion.

"We believe it is now clear that the continuing U.S. military presence in
Iraq is counterproductive and wrong. The occupation has lost the trust of
the Iraqi people. We abhor the violence -- each day Iraq becomes less safe
for the occupied, the occupiers, and those who seek to relieve the
suffering," the board stated.

The Board said that the violence has continued to escalate over the past
year even as U.S. forces resumed offensive actions this fall that
culminated in their November campaign against insurgents in Fallujah.
About one third of the city's homes and buildings were reported to have
been destroyed in the campaign. At least three U.S. Marines were reported
killed Thursday in continued fighting there, even as a few hundred of the
more than 250,000 residents who fled the city before the offensive began
trickling back through U.S. checkpoints this week.

Under international law, according to the Board, the U.S. remains
responsible for the success or failure of the ongoing occupation. This in
turn will be measured by how well it establishes and maintains security
for Iraqis; restores basic services, including utilities, health care and
education; and revives the local economy to meet day-to-day, as well as
recovery needs of Iraqis. The U.S. is obligated to effect rapid transition
to a sovereign representative government; assure the active presence of
the international community in Iraq's rehabilitation; and demonstrate
responsibility in the allocation of Iraqi funds.

Washington's accounting for the expenditure of both its funds during the
occupation and those held in a special Iraqi oil account since the
invasion was strongly criticized in a high level UN report earlier this
month, while a new study by a Norwegian institute found that the
percentage of Iraqi infants and young children suffering from malnutrition
has nearly doubled -- to 7.7 percent -- since March, 2003.

"On all these points the U.S. has failed," according to the AFSC board,
noting that the result was the loss of support for U.S. troop presence in
Iraq from both the Iraqi people, and "by most accounts, the U.S. public."
"All of these events confirm our long held belief that violence can only
beget further violence."

"The U.S. must give way," said the board, so that the United Nations and
other agencies, working with the Iraqi interim government, can try to
achieve peace and stability. Washington itself retains a moral
responsibility to provide financial support to those efforts, AFSC said.

The relief group, which was founded during World War I to carry out
humanitarian activities in Europe, is currently sponsoring "Eyes Wide
Open," a multimedia exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq War in major
cities of the United States.

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