The strategy is people power pressuring the pillars of the policy, but what is the platform? Some thoughts for your consideration:
Instead of staying the course, we demand that our officials immediately change the course we are on. We support the majority of Americans, the majority of British people, and the 87 percent of Iraqis who want a timetable for ending our bloody occupation of Iraq.
Instead, we must prevent a military escalation by our stalemated warmakers. There should be no US or [US-backed] Israeli bombing against Iran or Syria. We demand to know if the White House and Pentagon have any active plans to do so, as reported by such reputable sources as Seymour Hersh. Such an escalation will not work militarily, will ignite a wider war, and serve only the narrow agenda of the neo-conservatives.
Second, we demand that the White House yield to the bipartisan Congressional demand that there be no funding of permanent military bases in Iraq. Since Rep. Barbara Lee first introduced the resolution with a handful of others, it has grown into a bipartisan consensus except for the White House.
Third, we demand a timetable for ending the US occupation and bringing the US troops home. We will petition and demand that the White House relinquish its formal role to the United Nations Security Council when a re-authorization vote is scheduled later this year.
Fourth, a "Marshall Plan" for Iraq. A US transfer to the UN would permit a fresh approach to negotiations with the insurgents, reconciliation, humanitarian assistance, reconstruction. and transitional security arrangments. We must shift from unilateralism to multilateralism. No one in the international community will help in the stabilization and revival of Iraq until the US relinquishes its power of occupation.
Fifth, respect for the sovereignty of Iraq in all its diversity must be at the heart of any transition. A UN-appointed body must mediate the complex issues of amnesty for those who fought the occupation, and an agreement on equitable power sharing concerning oil revenues and security arrangements, among other issues. Proposals for a false federalism that would actually subdivide the country into statelets should be rejected.
Finally, the US will have to change course in the region, seriously promote a viable Palestinian state, and abandon all neo-conservative fantasies of turning Sunnis against Shiites in a regional sectarian conflict. To solve the Iraq crisis, the US will have to seek diplomatic cooperation from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Iran, not plunge the region into deeper and more violent division. #
The movement should say this to the White House and the Republican spin machine:
We hold the Bush Administration, its allies in Congress, and war contractors like Halliburton responsible for the needless deaths of three thousand American troops, and countless Iraqi civilians, for the wasted expenditure of billions in our tax dollars, for lying to the media and the American people, for staining our country's reputation around the world, and for failing to make Americans safer for decades to come. Defeating the warmakers in the 2006 and 2008 elections is a necessary step to save our honor, our lives and our democracy, but it is not enough. We live on borrowed time in a dangerous world. We must shame the neo-cons, discredit their doctrines, and demand their resignations from power.
Their fantasies must never again become the premises of American policy. We want a process like a truth commission, not to cover up what went wrong in Iraq, but to investigate and hold the neo-conservatives accountable for taking America in a catastrophic direction. We need to show the world that not all Americans are filled dreams of empire or fantasies of Armageddon, and that another America is possible and achievable. #
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