GP RELEASE Greens were right on Iraq, Dem & Repub warhawks wrong

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

For Immediate Release:
Monday, March 13, 2006

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805,
starlene@greens.org


Greens and other antiwar Americans were right on Iraq;
prowar Republicans and Democrats were wrong

• Evidence of deceit and impending disaster existed
before Bush invaded Iraq; "Being right doesn't make us
proud, it makes us angry" say Greens.

• Events are planned to mark the third anniversary of
the invasion of Iraq.


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party candidates and leaders
marked the beginning of the fourth year of the Iraq
War with a reminder that Greens and millions of other
Americans who opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq were
right from the very beginning.

"All those Republican and Democratic White House
officials and leaders in Congress and their apologists
in the media who supported the invasion of Iraq were
dead wrong, and many were complicit in the prowar
lies," said Jeff Kravitz, Green candidate for U.S.
Representative in California's 5th District
(Sacramento) <http://www.kravitzforcongress.org>.
"Some of them -- especially warhawk Democrats like
Senators Clinton [NY], Kerry [Mass.], and Biden [Del.]
-- are still wrong."

Greens, led by the party's Peace Action Committee
(GPAX) <http://www.gp.org/committees/peace>, will mark
the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in
numerous events planned for the weekend of March 18.
GPAX has endorsed the Troops Out Now call for March 18
and 19 and International Days of Action Against the
War, with protests at military recruiting stations
throughout the U.S. The North Carolina Green Party is
co-sponsoring the Third Rally and March in
Fayetteville, near Ft. Bragg (contact: Elena Everett,
<greentararaider@yahoo.com>).

GPAX and the state Green Parties of North Carolina,
Michigan, Florida, and Oklahoma have endorsed the Gulf
Coast Vet and Katrina Survivor March
<http://www.vetgulfmarch.org>, which begins Tuesday,
March 14, and ends Sunday with an Antiwar-Gulf
solidarity rally in New Orleans.

Last week, Greens called for the release of Cindy
Sheehan, Green Party member Medea Benjamin, and other
antiwar protesters who had been arrested in New York
on March 6 for demanding immediate withdrawal of all
U.S. troops, which the Green Party supports. The
party has also called for no permament military bases
left behind in Iraq, an end to torture and other
illegal treatment of prisoners, a halt to domestic
attacks on civil liberties, and steps to break the
U.S. addiction to oil, and has consistently opposed
the war on Iraq since President Bush first threatened
an invasion:

• Greens warned in late 2002 and early 2003 that the
Bush Administration was lying to American citizens and
to the world when it claimed that Saddam Hussein
possessed WMDS, that he has conspired with al-Qaeda,
that Iraq had connections with the 9/11 attacks, and
that Saddam had sought nuclear weapons materials from
Africa.
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_09_27_02.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_10_25_02.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_01_19_03.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_02_10_03.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_02_13_03.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_02_14_03.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_03_20_03.html
http://www.gp.org/impeachbush/

"Evidence already existed that President Bush lied
about our reasons for invading Iraq when he delivered
his January, 2003, State of the Union speech," said
Rae Vogeler, Wisconsin Green Party candidate for U.S.
Senate <http://www.VoteRae.org>. "The Downing Street
memo confirmed that intelligence was 'fixed' to
support the war."

• Greens warned in March, 2003, that U.S. forces would
use illegal weapons materials, including depleted
uranium and cluster bombs; that the Bush
Administration was already violating the law in the
treatment of prisoners; and that contractors like
Halliburton were poised to profiteer from the
invasion.
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_03_20_03.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_05_12_03.html

• Greens have warned repeatedly that an invasion of
Iraq would inflame Muslim anger against the U.S.,
strengthening al-Qaeda and making the world less
secure.
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_03_20_03.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_01_20_04.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_07_08.shtml
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_09_19.shtml

• In July, 2003, the Green Party of the United States
called for the impeachment of President Bush for
deceiving the American people and for violation the
U.S. Constitution, and for withdrawal of U.S. troops
from Iraq.
http://www.gp.org/impeachbush/
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_07_21_03.html

• Calling for immediate withdrawal, Greens warned
repeatedly in 2005 that continued occupation might
lead to civil war in Iraq.
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_02_02.html
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_09_19.shtml
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_10_26b.shtml

"The thousands of Americans, including Greens, who
protested in the streets in early 2003 were right,"
said Michael Berg, Delaware Green candidate for U.S.
Representative <http://www.bergforcongress.us>, who
was thrust into the role of prominent spokesperson for
the peace movement when his son Nick was abducted and
killed on May 7, 2004 in retaliation for the torture
of Iraquis in Abu Ghraib prison. "We need to hold
public officials who got us into the Iraq war
accountable. Being right doesn't make us proud, it
makes us angry and sorrowful for the needless deaths
of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, the more than
2,300 U.S. servicemembers, and the hundreds of
civilian contractors."


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

Green Party rebuttal to President Bush's 2006 State of
the Union Address (Video News Release)
http://www.gp.org/video/2006stateofunion


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