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For Immediate Release: March 21, 2006 Contact: Maud Easter, 475-9532 To mark 3 long years of the war in Iraq, this billboard, and the 1,100 matching yard signs set out in neighborhoods across the Capital District, send a clear message to Washington: Support Our Troops, Bring them Home Now! These signs show us visually what pollsters tell us is in the hearts of the 57% of Americans who believe the Iraq War is not worth the cost – it’s time to bring our troops safely home to their families. This war has already cost too many lives – 2,318 American soldiers killed in combat, over 17,000 injured, and all traumatized by chronic violence and insecurity. These soldiers are working in an impossible context – shaped by White House and Pentagon policies that counter any GI efforts to reduce tensions and violence. Iraqis are justifiably angered by these policies: aerial bombardments that have caused thousands of civilian deaths, house-to-house searches that terrify neighborhoods, and abusive detention that humiliates prisoners and alienates the population. Under these circumstances, how can keeping the GIs there reduce tensions and bring peace? US General George Casey, the top US Commander in Iraq, told Congress that the large American military presence “extends the time it will take for Iraqi security forces to become self-sufficient”. A recent Zogby poll found that 29% of American soldiers in Iraq thought the US should exit the country immediately, and 82% called for withdrawal within the next year. We believe that bringing the troops home will be good for Iraqis as well as American soldiers. With over 100,000 civilians now dead from this war, Iraqis desperately need an end to the US occupation which is above all a catalyst to ongoing violence. The US presence is a rallying cry for the Iraqi insurgency. Iraqis trying to put their government and society back together are immediately tarnished as collaborators with the US. Once the US leaves and stops trying to control the Iraqi political process, authentic Iraqi political figures can move into leadership and work to lower tensions. Nationalist insurgents can back off armed resistance and move into the political arena. The US can redirect to multilateral and Iraqi civil agencies the 6 billion dollars per month it currently spends on the war and occupation, to be used instead for the reconstruction of the war’s devastation. Iraqi-led reconstruction – able to provide water, power, and public health – will provide the real building blocks of post-war security for Iraq. Many of the 24 partner organizations in the SIGN-ON for Peace Campaign are here today, and I encourage you to talk with them – find out why their organizations are helping people decorate the Capital District with a message for peace and why they want our troops brought home now. A list of all the sites where yard signs were distributed, from Columbia to Schoharie County, and everywhere in between, is attached. |
