[Peace-discuss] Immediate withdrawal

[C. G. Estabrook]

     Why we stand for immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq

     THE U.S. occupation of Iraq has not liberated the Iraqi people, but 
has made life worse for most Iraqis.

     Tens of thousands of U.S. service people have been killed or 
maimed, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have lost their 
lives as a result of the U.S. invasion in 2003, the ongoing occupation, 
and the violence unleashed by them.

     Iraq's infrastructure has been destroyed, and U.S. plans for 
reconstruction abandoned. There is less electricity, less clean drinking 
water, and more unemployment today than before the U.S. invasion.

     All of the justifications initially provided by the U.S. for waging 
war on Iraq have been exposed as lies; the real reasons for the invasion 
-- to control Iraq's oil reserves and to increase U.S. strategic 
influence in the region -- now stand revealed.

     The Bush administration has insisted again and again that 
stability, democracy, and prosperity are around the next bend in the 
road. But with each day that the U.S. stays, the violence and lack of 
security facing Iraqis worsen. The U.S. says that it cannot withdraw its 
military because Iraq will collapse into civil war if it does. But the 
U.S. has deliberately stoked sectarian divisions in its ongoing attempt 
to install a U.S.-friendly regime, thus driving Iraq towards civil war.

     The November elections in the United States sent a clear message 
that voters reject the Iraq war, and opinion polls show that seven in 10 
Iraqis want the U.S. to leave sooner rather than later. Even most U.S. 
military and political leaders agree that staying the course in Iraq is 
a policy that is bound to fail.

     Yet all the various alternative plans for Iraq now being discussed 
in Washington, including those proposed by House and Senate Democrats, 
aren't about withdrawing the U.S. military from Iraq. Rather, these 
strategies are about continuing the pursuit of U.S. goals in Iraq and 
the larger Middle East using different means.

     Even the proposal to redeploy U.S. troops outside of Iraq, a plan 
favored by many Democratic Party leaders, envisions continued U.S. 
intervention inside Iraq.

     With former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger insisting that a 
military victory in Iraq is no longer possible and (Ret.) Lt. Gen. 
William Odom calling for "complete withdrawal" of all U.S. troops, the 
antiwar movement should demand no less than the immediate withdrawal of 
the U.S. military -- as well as reparations to the Iraqi people, so they 
can rebuild their own society and genuinely determine their own future.

     Ali Abunimah
     Gilbert Achcar
     Michael Albert
     Tariq Ali
     Anthony Arnove
     Noam Chomsky
     Kelly Dougherty
     Eve Ensler
     Eduardo Galeano
     Rashid Khalidi
     Camilo Mejía
     Arundhati Roy
     Howard Zinn