GREENS BLAST TROOP ESCALATIONS AND DELAYED EXIT

Check out the new GPUS press release


GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, August 25, 2005

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Committee,
starlene@greens.org, cell phone 916-995-3805
Rebecca Rotzler, Peace Action Committee Co-chair,
845-255-3122, rebelrot@yahoo.com


GREENS BLAST TROOP ESCALATIONS AND DELAYED EXIT
PLANS, CALL FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ

Greens announce an online petition against the
war, criticize Democratic Party support for
Bush's Iraq policy.


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders sharply
criticized plans announced by the Pentagon to
increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, and
reiterated the party's call to begin withdrawing
occupational forces from Iraq immediately.

"We agree with Cindy Sheehan -- the only
legitimate way to support our troops is to get
them out of Iraq right now," said Andrea Garland,
Louisiana Green who joined Ms. Sheehan at her
Camp Casey protest vigil in Crawford, Texas.
"This will be the demand of Greens participating
in the September 24 rallies in Washington, D.C.
against the occupation."

The Green Party's Peace Action Committee (GPAX)
announced an online petition urging the White
House to end the occupation and supporting the
Camp Casey vigil, at
<http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/Greens/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=103>.

GPAX recently issued a statement in support of
Camp Casey
<http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_08_10.shtml>,
which national Green Party co-chair Rebecca
Rotzler presented to Ms. Sheehan.

Greens especially condemned statements from
Democratic leaders supporting increased
deployment, including Senators Hillary Clinton
(N.Y.), Joe Biden (Del.) and John Kerry (Mass.).
Greens also rejected the position of Sen. Russell
Feingold (D-Wis.), MoveOn.org, and others who
favor a delayed withdrawal, including Sen.
Feingold's call for removal of U.S. troops by
December, 2006.

"Greens do not demand that President Bush
announce a plan to withdraw troops. We demand
that the President issue an order to begin
withdrawal now," said Sarah "echo" Steiner,
sister of an Iraq War Veteran, co-chair of the
Green Party of Florida, and GPAX member.
"Another year of occupation will mean hundreds,
perhaps thousands more U.S. troops dead and
maimed; and tens of thousands more dead Iraqi
civilians."

Green Party leaders have called the Iraq invasion
and occupation a catastrophe, noting that:

? Between 25,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians have
been killed in the war; the number of U.S. troops
killed is approaching 2,000.

? The Bush Administration now admits that secular
democracy is unlikely in Iraq; possible civil
war, further breakdown of vital infrastructure,
and establishment a repressive, misogynistic
Islamic theocracy threaten the Iraqi people.

? Bush Administration officials, including the
President, have not been held accountable for the
litany of deceptive justifications for the
invasion: nonexistent WMDs; forged evidence of
nuclear weapons; fraudulent claims of conspiracy
between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and Iraqi
involvement with the 9/11 attacks.

? Shocking revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib
mirror the White House's own efforts to
circumvent international and constitutional
prohibitions against torture in Guantanamo Bay
and elsewhere.

? Terrorist attacks have increased in countries
allied with the U.S. (most recently Britain, in
July), as predicted by opponents of the war
before the 2003 invasion. Vice President Cheney
continues to call Iraq a "critical front in the
war on terror"; Greens, in agreement with recent
CIA and other intelligence studies, assert that
the occupation itself has motivated further
attacks on the West and violence within Iraq, and
threatens U.S. security and international
stability.

? The costs of the occupation are causing social
needs in the U.S. to go unmet; while President
Bush preaches sacrifice -- presumably for
families who have lost children, parents, and
spouses in the war, and for soldiers given
insufficient armor and other equipment;
meanwhile, he has granted tax cuts for the
wealthy and indulged Halliburton and other
favored firms multibillion-dollar contracts
allowing them to profit from the war.

? The war itself is a crime, violating
international covenants signed by the U.S.
against invasion of a nation on 'preventive'
grounds; Hitler used preventive justifications
(also fraudulent) for the German invasion of
Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1939.

"These charges are not Green opinion. They are
statements of fact. They're the reason why the
Green Party has called for Mr. Bush's
impeachment," said Tom Siracuse of the West Side
(Manhattan) Greens and Veterans For Peace, both
of which are represented at the Camp Casey vigil.
GPAX is urging Americans outraged by the Iraq
venture to sign on to the Veterans For Peace
petition for impeachment
<http://www.veteransforpeace.org/impeachment/petition2.htm>,
which is also linked at the GPAX web page
<http://www.gp.org/committees/peace>.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

September 24 protests against the war; related
events in Washington, D.C.
United For Peace & Justice
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/fallmobe
Operation Ceasefire http://www.opceasefire.org

Gold Star Families For Peace
http://www.GSFP.org


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