Veterans For Peace calls on President Obama and Congress to stay out of Iraq. Stop providing arms to the government of Iraq. Do not conduct bombing missions of any sort in Iraq, including drone strikes and do not put troops on the ground. It is clear that after decades of war, adding more weapons and violence to the war torn country is not in the best interest of the Iraqi or American people. U.S. intervention will not stop the violence, it will only add new fuel to an already raging fire.
What can you do to help in this moment of crisis?
Join with Iraq Veterans Against the War in supporting the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), one of IVAW's partners in their Right to Heal Initiative. MADRE is collecting emergency donations for OWFI to help them relocate the residents of their women's shelter to safer places. OWFI has shelters for women fleeing domestic violence in many areas that are now under siege. They are rapidly mobilizing women and children to safer areas where they hope to relocate their shelters. Learn more about OWFI here. Donate to help OWFI here.
- Join local protest to make visible in the streets the mass sentiment against U.S. renewed intervention in Iraq.
- Call President Obama Phone: (202) 456-1111, Fax: (202) 456-2461
- Contact your Senator and Representative
- Sign one or all of these petitions. Credo Iraq Petition, World Beyond War Iraq Petition, Code Pink Iraq Petition, US Labor Against War Iraq Petition
A political solution, worked out among the people of Iraq is the only viable answer. U.S. military intervention will assuredly draw anti-U.S. forces from across the region into the fight making a political solution nearly impossible. If President Obama and Congress really want to do what is best for the people of Iraq, the U.S. should use all its diplomatic and economic resources to push the parties to the negotiation table and work to end the armed conflict.
How do we know U.S. intervention is not a solution? We have seen it before. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq brought a cost of $1.5 trillion and counting, thousands of service members killed with tens of thousands wounded and maimed with physical and psychological scars, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths and wounded with millions displaced from their homes as refugees. Why would this time be any different? War is clearly not the answer. It is time for the U.S. to use its power for a peaceful means to bring an end to war.