Bring the Troops Home

NEW BRING MONEY HOME NOW TOOLKIT HERE!

NEW BRING THE GUARD HOME TOOLKIT HERE!

NEW NO WAR ON IRAN TOOLKIT HERE!

NSN Iraq Daily Update

Below you will find a list of NSN updates on Iraq:
Iraq Daily Update 4/15/08.

07/14/2008 Bellingham, WA -- Iran Resolution

06/16/2008 Oberlin, OH -- Iran Resolution

06/09/2008 Cambridge, MA -- Iran Resolution

06/03/2008 Bar Habor, ME -- Iran Resolution

05/07/2008 New Brunswick, NJ

4/23/2008 New Britain, CT

3/22/2008 Brattleboro, VT -- Iran Resolution

3/17/2008 State College, PA

2/19/2008 Hartford, CT

2/5/2008 Urbana, IL referendum

Berwyn, IL referendum

1/23/2008 Nederland, CO

1/7/2008 New Haven, CT

11/14/2007 Falmouth, MA

11/7/2007 Helena MT referendum

11/7/2007 Missoula MT referendum

11/7/2007 Hamilton MT

11/14/2007 Richmond CA

9/18/2007 Albuquerque, NM

9/5/2007 Durango, CO

7/27/2007 Santa Fe, NM

• Guide to Getting a Resolution Passed in Your City
  
• Latest News
• Reading Room
• Quick Facts
• Resolutions That Have Passed
• Sample Resolutions
• Sample Petitions
• Sample Letters to the Editor
• Online Resources

• Basic Steps in Organizing a “Be About Peace Day” Event
  
• Appendix from Maplewood’s Cities for Peace Day
  



To learn more about the War in Iraq and how you can get involved to end the occupation, visit these websites:


Institute for Policy Studies

State-by-State Costs of the War
See how much the war is costing your state here.

Factsheet: U.S. Influence on Iraqi Oil
Click here to see a fact sheet on US’s influence on Iraqi oil.

Report: The Rip-off of Iraq's Oil Wealth
Control of Iraq's future oil wealth is being handed to multinational oil companies through long-term contracts that will cost Iraq hundreds of billions of dollars. 'Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth' reveals that current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64% of Iraq’s reserves to foreign oil companies. Iraq has the world’s third largest oil reserves. Read the report here.

Talking Points: Challenges Facing the Anti-War Movement
As a movement we have been extraordinarily successful in achieving our initial goal: we have helped transform public opinion to the now almost 2/3 majority opposition to the war in Iraq. Our task now is to transform that consciousness into empowerment. The administration's most useful tool - fear - remains a factor in U.S. politics, but it is now much more concentrated in congress, less so in the American people. Click here to see talking points by Phyllis Bennis.

NATIONAL TEACH-IN ON IRAQ: How Can We End This War?
Click here to watch a teach-in on Iraq with a panel discussion from Iraq war experts.


After Downing Street

Report: War and Occupation in Iraq
GlobalPolicy.org issues an extensive report: War and Occupation in Iraq. The report considers many aspects of the conflict, with special emphasis on the US Coalition’s responsibilities under international law. It also considers political and economic issues in Iraq and argues for urgent change, including a speedy withdrawal of Coalition forces. Click here to read an executive summary by After Downing Street.

Power Point: Evidence of War Lies
“Were I to list all the pieces of evidence that Bush took us to war with lies, we'd have lost tens of thousands of lives and tens of billions of dollars before I finished. So, I'll give you a short version. But we're killing people every day and churning through tens of thousands of dollars a second, so even this isn't going to be cheap.” Click here to watch a power point presentation of Bush’s war lies.


National Priorities Project

Cost of War
Click here to see the cost of war in relation to the cost of other national priorities like education and healthcare.


United for Peace and Justice

Swarm on Congress: SUMMER OF ACTION!
UFPJ and Grassroots America invite you to a Summer of Action to tell congress, “No more business as usual” until they end the illegal occupation of Iraq. Actions inclide visits to congress, sit-ins, organizing media events, and workshops. Click here for more information.

Download a Petition
There is no "due date" for these petitions. Use them at events and vigils not only to collect signatures, but to start a dialogue with passersby, and to find people interested in joining your local group. Click here to download a petition.

Watch The Ground Truth
“SOMETIMES THE GREATEST ACT OF COURAGE IS TO TELL THE TRUTH.” Buy the DVD and host a Ground Truth gathering here.

Take Legislative Action
Congress just gave the President another $95 Billion to continue and escalate the war and occupation in Iraq. Click here to find out how your congress person voted and what you can do about it.

Help Lt. Ehren Watada
On June 22, 2006, U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Ehren K. Watada stepped forward as the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the Iraq War and occupation. He faces court martial and up to 6 years imprisonment for refusing to deploy and for speaking out against a war that he believes is illegal. Click here to learn more information.

Email Congress: Use Your Power to Bring the Troops Home Now
We call on you, as our elected representatives in the U.S. Congress, to use your power and take action to end the war in Iraq and bring all the troops home. Send an email to your congressperson here.

Call Congress TODAY: Debate Iraq Policy, Close Torture School
Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard TODAY at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 888-355-3588. Click here for more information.


Code Pink

Listen Hillary
In October 2002 she voted to give the President authorization to wage war against Iraq, but in May 2007 she voted yes on Senator Feingold’s legislation to set a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq and no on the war-funding bill. Feingold was defeated and the war funding was approved, but Hillary was on the right side of history. Hilary also said at recent Democratic debate that the one thing she would do in the first 100 days of her administration would be to bring the troops home. Our sixteen-month Listen Hillary Campaign has had an impact on Senator Hillary Clinton’s stated position on the war—and her voting record in the Senate.

Code Pink House
Code Pink is renting a beautiful house in DC for a year so we can support our ongoing peace presence in the halls of Congress. We are committed to ending the Iraq war and bringing our troops home by the end of the year, and having a home base in DC will help us do just that. Click here to learn more information.

Watch “Toy Soldiers” Video
Watch and spread our latest video "Toy Soldiers"—a chilling reminder of how Bush is continually treating our soldiers like toys when real lives are at stake. Please check this link and send it to your friends, read Jodie Evan's blog and see action photos outside Bush's ranch in Texas.

DC Summer Training
Passionate about ending the US occupation of Iraq? Curious about how Congress works? Want to join with peacemakers from around the country to reclaim your government this summer? Join CODEPINK in DC this summer for our Peace Surge: 2 months of week-long activist trainings with daily actions in Congress! Click here for more information.

Sign Our Petition to Protest the Stoning of Du'a Khalil Aswad
Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17 year old from the town of Bashiqa, in Iraqi Kurdistan, was stoned to death on April 7, 2007. She came from a family of Yazidi faith, and was snatched from her home by Yazidi men who had discovered that she was in love with a Muslim Arab man and had visited him. In front of hundreds of people, including local police, they dragged her to the center of town and stoned her to death. Townspeople watched and even filmed this barbaric act. You can see a portion of the tape here (viewer discretion is STRONGLY advised). The killers, obviously well known in the community, are still free. Sign the petition here.


Bring Them Home Now

Mail a Postcard
The Bring Them Home Now! campaign has made postcards, black for mourning, to serve as a blunt reminder of this grim milestone and to demand that our Senators and Representatives work to end the occupation and stop funding it! Click here to order postcards.

Pressure Politicians
Contacting elected officials is easier and more effective than most people realize. The first step is locating their contact information. See directions on how to send a letter or organize a meeting with your elected officials here.

A Factsheet on PTSD
Many Vietnam veterans returned home to a troubled period of readjustment from their wartime experiences. Their emotional problems were characterized initially as post-Vietnam syndrome. It took mainstream psychiatry till the mid-1980’s to finally codify symptoms that have been associated with returning combat veterans since time immemorial. What had been dubbed "homesickness" after the Civil War, shell shock in WWI, and combat neurosis during WWII, was finally recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as an anxiety disorder in its own right, and termed post traumatic stress disorder — or PTSD. Click here to read the report.


Global Exchange

Books about the War in Iraq
As part of our mission to educate the public about human rights, social justice, and the global economy, Global Exchange offers these resources. Click here to see a list of books about Iraq.

Counter the Military Recruiters: Recruit for PEACE
Military recruiters are in almost every school in the United States, encouraging young people to join the armed services. Recruiters particularly target campuses in low-income communities and communities of color, where they offer young people economic incentives to join the military without disclosing the truth about the reality of war. They promise money for education and exciting jobs, a message that appeals to young people with limited opportunities. We have a right to be in the schools too- click here to find out how.


10 Things You Can Do To Promote Peace in Iraq in 2007
The people spoke out through the 2006 mid-term election: we want peace! By voting out pro-war candidates and changing control over Congress, we issued a mandate for new policies that promote peace and international cooperation. Now we want action. Find out how you can take action.

Report: Iraqi Women Under Seige
As millions of women around the world celebrate International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, some women have little to celebrate. This is certainly the case for Iraqi women, whose daily lives have been reduced to the sheer struggle for survival. When a woman leaves her house in today’s Iraq, she embraces her loved ones as if she might never return. And many won’t. Iraqi women face missiles and random shootings by the U.S. and British forces, terrorist suicide bombs, and criminal mafia-type gangs who regularly kidnap Iraqi men, women and children. Read the report by Global Exchange and Code Pink here.


Foreign Policy in Focus

Report: Northern Iraq’s Tangled Web
There are few areas in the world more entangled in historical deceit and betrayal than northern Iraq, where the British, the Ottomans, and the Americans have played a deadly game of political chess at the expense of the local Kurds. And now, because of a volatile brew of internal Iraqi and Turkish politics, coupled with the Bush administration’s clandestine war to destabilize and overthrow the Iranian government, the region threatens to explode into a full-scale regional war. Read the report from John Feffer here.

Report: The Failures of Democratization
The failures of Iraqi democratization as advocated by the Bush administration should not be blamed primarily on the Iraqis. Nor should they be used to reinforce racist notions that Arabs or Muslims are somehow incapable of building democratic institutions and living in a democratic society. Rather, democracy from the outset has been more of a self-serving rationalization for American strategic and economic interests in the region than a genuine concern for the right of the Iraq people to democratic self-governance. Read the report by Stephen Zunes here.

Report: The Iraqi Refugee Crisis
With the violence in Iraq showing no sign of slowing down, civilians increasingly suffer. The UN estimates that 2.6 million Iraqis have fled violence in their country since 2003 and at least 40-50,000 more Iraqis are leaving their homes every month. Two million have fled to surrounding countries, while some 1.8 million have vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq. Middle Eastern countries, Syria and Jordan in particular, have shown great generosity in welcoming Iraqis in the past three years, but that welcome is wearing thin. Other countries throughout the Middle East, including Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and Turkey are also seeing increased flows. Read the report from Kristele Younes here.


Report: Regional Implications of the Iraq War
President George W. Bush’s vision for the Iraq War was nothing if not expansive. Liberal democracy and popular sovereignty were to supplant tyranny not only in Baghdad, but in nearby capitals as well. And the force of U.S. arms would not be needed to accomplish the latter missions. As Bush asserted to eager applause at the American Enterprise Institute on February 25, 2003, “a new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.” Democracy, the war party believed, would be contagious. Read the report from Chris Toensing here.


AntiWar.com

Photos: Faces of the Fallen
These pages are an exact mirrored copy (except for this message) of pages available on thememoryhole.org, which has become unavailable due to the high volume of traffic generated by news reports. These photos were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Russ Kick of The Memory Hole. Click here to view photos.


Iraq Veterans Against the War

Why We're Against the War
Here are 10 reasons we oppose this war.

Free DVD for those who have served since September 11, 2001!
Are you or do you know someone serving who has served in the military since September 11, 2001? Are you or do you know someone serving in or in support of Iraq or Afghanistan? Click here to get a free copy of “Sir! No Sir!”

Counter Recruitment
Counter Recruitment (as most folks call it) or Truth-in-Recruiting (as some of us like to call it) is an important part of anti-war work. Counter Recruitment (CR) takes many different forms. Often times it means that people set up tables in high schools to pass out flyers and talk to students about the military and their options. Truth in Recruiting often involves veterans (and other activists) sharing their experiences in classrooms. Other activities include: Opt-out campaigns, organizing against JROTC programs, protesting at recruiting stations and providing information about alternatives to the military. Click here to read about counter recruitment efforts.


Military Families Speak Out

Read Speeches
Click here to read speeches given by MFSO Members around the country at events commemorating the 3rd anniversary of the war.

Download a Postcard
The postcard reads: Fund our Troops. De-fund the War. Download a printable copy here.

Video: Iraq Veterans Memorial
The Iraq Veterans Memorial is an online war memorial that honors the members of the U.S. armed forces who have lost their lives serving in the Iraq War. The Memorial is a collection of video memories from family, friends, military colleagues, and co-workers of those that have fallen. Click here to see the video.


More Than a Number

Read the Names
How many have we lost. The actual characters that we use to express number can not express the loss our nation has suffered. MoreThanANumber.org wanted to show you what we have lost, the men and women who will not be coming home the same way they left. No reunions, no joyous embraces, just sadness. Click here to read the names of those who have died in Iraq.


Bring Them Home Now.com

Buy a Stamp
Tell Everyone Where You Stand: Use the Anti-War stamps on all your postage. Giving voice to the majority of Americans who now support the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, "Bring Them Home Now!" has created a $.39 cent postage stamp. Click here to buy the stamp.


Declaration of Peace

Declaration of Peace Events
Click here to find events in your area.

Call for Congress to Sign the Congressional Declaration of Peace
One of the first steps in the campaign is to present our demands to our US Congressional Representatives and Senators. Declaration of Peace calls on local organizers to schedule visits to invite your Congressional members to demonstrate their commitment to peace through signing the Congressional Declaration of Peace. Your group may also choose to deliver the Congressional Declaration of Peace during a scheduled Candidates Forum or Town Hall Meeting. Urge your Representative and Senators to Sign the 2007 Congressional Declaration of Peace!

Learn about Nonviolent Civil Disobedience
As the violence in Iraq escalates, the Declaration of Peace is organizing nonviolent civil disobedience — and other forms of powerful and dramatic peacemaking – to urge the nation and its leaders to end the US quagmire in Iraq. We invite people everywhere to respond to this growing emergency by participating in this campaign of conscience and nonviolent action to defund the war, to support the troops by bringing them home safely, and to launch a comprehensive peace process. Click here to learn more about nonviolent action.

Nonviolence Training Events Calendar
Click here to find nonviolence training events in your area.