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Dear CODEPINKer,
You might have seen polls showing that the majority of Iraqis and Americans want to see a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. But did you know that when Bush visited Iraq on June 13, Iraq's President and Vice President asked him to set a timeline? And in a startling op-ed piece in Tuesday's Washington Post, Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffik Al-Rubaie admitted that Iraqis now see foreign troops as occupiers rather than the liberators, and said that their removal will strengthen the fledgling government by legitimizing it in the eyes of the Iraqi people.
Yet the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress refuse to set a timeline for withdrawal, saying U.S. troops need to stay to protect Iraqis until there is stability. But when the Iraqi people were asked who they trust to protect their personal safety, only 1 percent said the coalition forces!
And did you know that when we in the peace movement were successful in convincing the House and Senate to approve amendments to the emergency supplemental spending bill calling for no permanent bases in Iraq, the Republican leaders in the joint conference committee simply eliminated the provision from the final bill. Little wonder that 80 percent of Iraqis fear that the U.S. plans to have permanent bases in their country.
The rulers of our nation refuse to set a date for withdrawal and renounce permanent bases because they plan to be in Iraq not for one or two more years, but for decades to come. Their goal is not democracy in Iraq, but control of Middle Eastern oil.
The choice is clear: Are we going to allow our soldiers and the Iraqi people to keep dying so that U.S. corporations can try to control Iraq's oil? Or are we going to do everything within our power to end this war?
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If you, like us, are determined to bring our troops home,
here are two things you can do:
1. Support the hunger strike we will be launching in Washington DC and around the country on July 4th. You can join us for a day, a week or open-ended. Just this week we have an amazing new list of fasters, including Sean Penn, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn, Dolores Huerta and Lt. Ehren Watada. Go to www.troopshomefast.org to learn, sign up, or donate funds to make this fast as effective as possible.
2. Help build a bloc of U.S. voters-millions of us-who pledge to only vote for candidates who commit to a speedy withdrawal from Iraq. We ask you to commit, during the course of the summer, to getting 100 people to sign the Voter Pledge for Peace. If we can get millions of voters to sign the pledge, we will have a chance to influence not only the upcoming Congressional elections but the 2008 presidential campaign. You can download a hardcopy here and send it back to us with 100 signatures.
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Let's show the leaders of this country, and people around the world, that we are as committed to building peace as they are to waging war.
With peace in our hearts,
Allison, Dana, Erin, Farida, Gael, Jodie, Katie, Medea, Meredith, Nancy, Rae, Samantha and Tiffany
P.S.
- Remember, you can join in many travel opportunities this summer, from a New Orleans work camp to Camp Casey in Crawford to a retreat/spa in Austin. Click here for info.
- Don't forget to forward this message to friends!
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