[img_assist|nid=172|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=327|height=228]The Syracuse Peace Council eagerly
anticipates the return of US service
members from the war in Iraq. As
an organization which opposed the Iraq War before it was launched, we feel it is long overdue.
However, we want a complete withdrawal.
We call for: No US troops in Iraq. No US mercenaries in Iraq. No US military
hardware or bases in Iraq. Especially, we call for the end of the air war over
Iraq–no depleted uranium, no Chinook helicopters, no Reaper drones, no Hellfire
missiles, no white phosphorous; no cluster bombs….
Nor should any puppet government be left
behind. For any real healing to begin, we must fully remove ourselves from this
scene of our crimes.
Consequences of War Endure
This past century teaches that no war
truly ends. Its consequences endure and multiply. The Iraqi people–the widowed,
the orphaned, the amputated, the heartsick, the displaced, the driven mad–will
continue to suffer long after the last US soldier leaves.
Despite our departure from that lacerated
land, our responsibility to the people of Iraq remains. We must provide
reparations for the wounds we have inflicted. Dollars cannot compensate for the
lives lost and devastated infrastructure. Nonetheless, we must give our utmost.
For millennia Iraqis have been builders; we must get out of their way and
provide economic support to enable them to rebuild their country and their
lives.
The deep economic recession we are
experiencing leads some to believe that we should cut foreign aid. However,
economic reparations for Iraq can easily be paid with a small fraction of the
enormous budget that has been allocated to the US military without competing in
the slightest with human needs at home.
It is telling that US troops aren’t being
kicked out of Iraq, instead, that nation’s government has refused to extend
immunity to US troops. They wish to hold US troops accountable to Iraqi law if
they were to remain. What does it say about the conduct of the US military that
we only want to maintain a military presence in a place where we can’t be held
responsible for our actions?
Lessons and Consequences
What can we learn from the disaster of the
Iraq War? 4,482 US service members dead, 32,213 US troops wounded, a total economic cost of over $3
trillion according to Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard
professor Linda J. Bilmes. The extent of the carnage to Iraqis is unknown
because our government didn’t want to count.
We must break out of our bubble of
chauvinism, uncritical thinking and mindless consumption. We must shun the lies
that draw us into war. We must remember what happened in Iraq and use it to
prevent a new attack on Iran.
We must also embark on the overdue
reparation of ourselves. We must end our worship of violence. We must mend our
hearts that tolerated so long what we did to the Iraqi people. We must fully
support the healing of our soldiers who, maimed in body and soul, must continue
to live out their days knowing what we have done. And we should hold
accountable those who used lies to lead us into war with Iraq in the first
place.
From War to Peace
We must convert our war-besotted economy
to one that profits from life, not death. We must dismantle our bloated
military. To stop subverting and invading more oil lands, we must break our
addiction to oil. We must leave not only Iraqi children, but our own, a planet
free of the destitution and killing that threatens to engulf them.
The responsibility for making these
fundamental changes rests first with us, the people of this country. As we’ve
done for the past 75 years, the Syracuse Peace Council will continue working to
educate, agitate and organize for a world where war, violence and exploitation
in any form will no longer exist. We invite you to join us.
Find this and past
SPC statements online at: peacecouncil.net/statements.
