Bush Says Surge
The People Say Purge Bush,
End the War, Bring the Troops Home Now
January 27, 2007

Bush’s latest escalation of the war in Iraq—the deployment of 21,500 more troops that he euphemistically refers to as a “surge”—has met with overwhelming condemnation from such diverse sectors as the members of the US military, capitals around the world, homes across America, Congressional offices in Washington, D.C. With 655,000 Iraqi civilians slaughtered, per an exhaustive study published in The Lancet, 3,059 U.S. troops brought home in body bags, and the carnage in Baghdad increasing each day to terrifying levels, those who didn’t understand finally do: from day 1 this war has been a grave injustice perpetrated on the Iraqi people, but it’s not too late for the Americans to end the madness and bring the troops home now. Demanding just that, thousands of people from all corners of America will be gathering on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, January 27. That same day, in Paris, from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. at the Fontaine St. Michel, Americans Against the War (AAW) France will be coming out in solidarity with the demonstrators in Washington as well as those in towns across America and around the world.

Given the groundswell of opposition, one might think Bush would have reconsidered this recent escalation. After all, even significant members of his own party and several of his top generals have denounced it. Increasing numbers of soldiers who must confront the Iraq morass on a daily basis are against their country’s precarious presence and murderous actions there. Some 8,000 have gone AWOL, the Defense Department reports, many believing the actual number to be considerably higher. In November, the Washington Post has just revealed, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the U.S. should remove its troops from Baghdad and let the Iraqis take over. A recent BBC World Services survey reveals that 75 percent of the 26,000 people polled in 25 countries disapprove of Bush’s Iraq campaign.

So why is Bush persisting in this war and occupation that has brought nothing but death, destruction, and misery to the Iraqi people, that has cost U.S. citizens loss of liberties and erosion of their economy (cost so far of the war is a staggering $360,583,127,860), that has lasted longer than America’s involvement in World War II?

• Oil contracts. In the next few weeks the Maliki government is expected to sign the U.S.-drafted hydrocarbon law, which will allow foreign corporations to gain control of Iraq’s oil reserves and will lock the country into such an arrangement for 30 years. Bush needs to insure the corporations of a certain stability in Iraq—at least until their contracts are signed.

• Further destabilization. Shia militia are “ethnically cleansing” Iraq, aided and abetted by U.S. troops, which is causing Sunnis to flee to Syria and Jordan and prompting Sunnis in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to feel obligated to materially support their beleagured co-religionists in Iraq. Sunni militia, for their part, are murdering Shiites, also aided and abetted by the U.S. The overall effect on the region is a dangerously increased level of destabilization, which Bush could subsequently use as a pretext for waging a wider campaign, with further U.S. and Israeli incursions in quest of yet more control of oil flow, greater hegemony.

• Clearing the path for an attack on Iran. U.S. threats against Iran are increasing. Two nuclear battleships are in the region, poised to strike Iran at any given moment, and some battle-ready troops are already on the ground. With the Middle East in chaos, Bush believes that a U.S./Israeli attack on Iran, most likely with nuclear weapons, would be met with little opposition in the region, leaving the path open to neutralize the country and take over its oil reserves.

The longer the U.S. stays in Iraq, the worse the situation becomes for the Iraqi people, the U.S. troops, Americans stateside, and the peoples of the Middle East, while those who benefit are Bush and Co and their corporate cronies.

Americans Against the War calls upon:
The people of France to demand that their government urge the U.S. to pull out of Iraq now, and that it cease threatening Iran

• The citizens of the U.S. to tell their elected representatives they will vote for them only if:
• They demand an immediate end to the war on and occupation of Iraq, with all foreign corporations being forced to leave and reparations paid for the destruction of the country
• They condemn the threats against Iran and refuse to support an attack against that country
• They call for the Patriot and Military Commissions acts to be scrapped
• All like-minded people to join AAW on Saturday, January 27, between 3 and 5 p.m. at the Fontaine St. Michel, Place St. Michel, to demand that the war be ended and the troops brought home now.
  

Americans Against the War (France)
www.aawfrance.org