Transformative Politics: #YouNeedToKnow #News: Green Party: No new US military action in Iraq

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:

Thursday, June 19, 2014

This release is online at http://www.gp.org/newsroom/press-releases/details/4/714

Contacts:

Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org

Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Green Party: No new U.S. military action in Iraq

• Airstrikes, ground troops will not solve new conflicts, say Greens

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on foreign policy and peace

http://www.gp.org/speakers/subjects.php

• Green Party 2014 Annual National Meeting in St. Paul, Minn., July 24-27

"Back to Our Roots: People. Planet. Principles."

http://2014greenpartyconvention.org

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States is calling for no new U.S. military action in Iraq, including on-the-ground troop deployment and airstrikes.

Greens are urging President Obama to resist demands by belligerent politicians and pundits for a U.S. assault in Iraq against ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

"Those who want peace in the region should prepare to resume the protests that answered President Bush's drumbeat for war. Americans should resist propaganda claiming that U.S. military assaults lead to peace and liberation. The 2003 invasion caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, as well as 4,486 U.S. service members, and destruction of Iraqi society and infrastructure," said Cheri Honkala, the Green Party's 2012 nominee for Vice President (http://www.jillstein.org/cheri_honkala).

Greens across the U.S. have begun to organize and participate in protests against military action. The Miami-Dade Green Party is officially co-sponsoring and will speak at an anti-war rally on June 21 in Downtown Miami (https://www.facebook.com/events/1419148715034648/).

Drone attacks, which President Obama escalated in Pakistan and other countries and which the Green Party has vigorously opposed, don't only "take out" enemies, they also cause civilian death and widespread terror among populations that live near targets.

Greens said that further U.S. military action is likely to aggravate the current crisis and may empower ISIS and other factions, as the history of U.S. engagement in Iraq demonstrates. The invasion ordered by President Bush in 2003 made such conflict inevitable: sectarian extremist groups, which had a marginal presence in Iraq before 2003, began to emerge in the chaos of war, especially after the Iraq's armed forces and civil services were dismantled. Such groups include al-Qaeda and militias supported by Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other countries.

CIA officials warned the Bush Administration in advance that war would cause a larger breakdown and increase tensions in Iraq between Shiites and Sunnis, but the Bush Administration ignored ignored this advice and misrepresented the CIA's analysis.

Green Party leaders also noted the dangerous inconsistency of a foreign policy that supports arming sectarian anti-Assad rebels in Syria and anti-Gaddafi factions in Libya while bombing their counterparts in Iraq. (See "ISIS Iraq Offensive: Can the Empire Reassert Control of the Jihadists?" by Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report, June 17, http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/isis-iraq-offensive-can-empire-reassert-control-jihadists)

President Obama withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011, in accord with the timetable signed by Bush and under pressure from the Iraqi Parliament.

"The President should not heed the advice of Republican and Democratic warhawks who were completely wrong about Iraq twelve years ago," said Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for Governor of New York (http://www.howiehawkins.org). "The current situation shows the consequences of a doctrine of military aggression that was behind an attempt to establish U.S. political hegemony and unrestricted access to oil resources in the Middle East."

"The U.S. media and Democratic Party leaders swallowed the Bush Administration's false statements about WMDs, Iraqi involvement in the 9/11 attacks, and Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions. Instead of enjoying more airtime, Bush officials who lied should be investigated and prosecuted for conspiracy related to manipulation of intelligence, public deception, and violation of international law to which the U.S. is signatory," said Mr. Hawkins.

Greens said that Congress must repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and the bipartisan "blank check" for the White House to wage war, which initiated an era of endless war and increasing attacks on Muslim countries that had not attacked the U.S. The Green Party also calls for deep reductions in military spending and transfer of funding to human needs.