A New Call for Protests

This is one of the myriad of organizations out there to provide help to those of us who need a collective action response to this hideous, unnecessary war.
http://www.VoteNoWar.org

---->The Crisis in Iraq
---->A Call for Emergency Protests - Saturday,
June 5, 2004
---->March from the White House to the Pentagon
---->Mobilizations in San Francisco and Los
Angeles
---->Special Preview - New VoteNoWar Resource
Center! http://www.VoteNoWar.org/resources

Dear VoteNoWar Member,

--->The Crisis In Iraq

The outcome of Bush’s war and occupation of Iraq
will have a significance that will span the globe
and last a generation. Bush and Cheney know that
their “vision” of endless war – aimed at
destroying any government anywhere on the planet
that refuses to obey the dictates of Washington –
turns on the increasingly bloody battle being
waged against the Iraqi resistance. From occupied
Haiti to occupied Palestine and everywhere else,
people recognize the global importance of the
confrontation in Iraq.

The eyes of the world have been focused in recent
weeks on the Pentagon siege of Fallujah. More than
600 Iraqis have been killed in that city of 200,
000 just since mid-April. Thousands more were
wounded. The Pentagon command ordered troops to
fire on ambulances trying to take wounded people
to hospitals. In the month of April alone, 130 U.S.
soldiers have been killed with an unknown number
of wounded - a large number of whom are suffering
from severe brain injuries or missing limbs.

Iraqi civilians who have been corralled into the
infamous Abu Ghraib prison are being tortured and
interrogated by the U.S. military and Central
Intelligence Agency operatives, as well as by
so-called civilian contractors. Pictures of Iraqis,
stripped naked, forced to lie in piles of human
bodies, forced to perform or simulate sexual acts
with each other, and made to stand on a box,
hooded with electrodes attached with the threat of
electrocution, have shocked the people of the
Middle East and the world. These are not the acts
of a few "rogue" soldiers, but instead were
carried out under instruction from higher
officials at the prison in "military intelligence"
who then further torture and interrogate their
terrified and brutalized prisoners. The U.S.
military has raided many villages and towns in
Iraq, separating families and taking away all men
and boys, and is now holding 10,000 Iraqis
civilians hostage, without any charge or POW
status. This is nothing other than a sick replay
of the U.S. "pacification" program in Vietnamese
villages more than thirty years ago.

--->June 5 - March from the White House to the
Pentagon

On June 5, people from around the United States
are converging at the White House and marching to
the Pentagon to demand Bring the Troops Home Now!
There will also be large antiwar protests that day
in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities on
June 5th. While Bush is slipping in the polls and
the people increasingly turn against the war, it
is critical that the antiwar movement act now to
turn the up the pressure. Waiting for the November
election or the possible election of John Kerry
would be a colossal mistake. Kerry only promises
to send more troops to Iraq rather than end this
debacle. The people of the U.S. must take action
-- as they did during Vietnam -- to stop this
criminal war.

Your help is needed now more than ever.
Volunteers are working all over the country
mobilizing for the June 5 demonstrations. Funds
are urgently needed to help cover the costs of
leaflets and posters to get the word out, bus
transportation, and all of the other expenses
associated with a mass demonstration. Please make
a generous donation to support the work of the
anti-war movement, by going to http://www.
VoteNoWar.org/donate.html to use our secure
server online for credit card donations, or for
information to write a check.

The Pentagon and White House's cynical disregard
for human life, both the Iraqi people and the rank
and file U.S. soldiers who have been sent to
subdue them, is stunning by any standard. The
people of the United States must expose
multi-millionaire “blue-blood” politicians sending
working class young people to kill and be killed
in pursuit of their right-wing fantasy of world
domination. The whole world must know that they do
not act in our name.

--->Bring the Troops Home Now!

The Bush administration is growing ever more
isolated and exposed as other countries, including
Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican
Republic, are withdrawing their troops in the face
of growing public outrage within their own
countries.

World renowned historian Howard Zinn, author of
the Peoples History of the United States, speaks
directly of the need for an immediate withdrawal
for Iraq. “In light of this, any discussion of
'What do we do now?' must start with the
understanding that the present U.S. military
occupation is morally unacceptable. The suggestion
that we simply withdraw from Iraq is met with
laments: 'We mustn't cut and run. . . . We must
stay the course. . . . Our reputation will be
ruined. . . .' That is exactly what we heard when,
at the start of the Vietnam escalation, some of us
called for immediate withdrawal. The result of
staying the course was 58,000 Americans and
several million Vietnamese dead.”

Now is the time to act! Join us in national
emergency protests on June 5!

--->Preview the New VoteNoWar Resource Center

To serve activists around the country who are
organizing in their communities, who getting the
word out to Bring the Troops Home Now! and who are
building the growing peace movement, we are happy
to announce the new VoteNoWar Resource Center! Go
to http://www.VoteNoWar.org/resources , to get
petitions and flyers for Bring the Troops Home Now
committees, as well as the brand new VoteNoWar and
Bring the Troops Home Now! t-shirts and bumper
stickers.

On June 5th, people from many different
communities will come together in Washington, DC
and elsewhere, demanding and end to occupation and
oppression. To read and endorse the call to action,
go to: http://www.ANSWERcoalition.
org/campaigns/j5/index.html#call .

If you are organizing transportation from your
city, fill out the form at: http://www.
ANSWERcoalition.org/campaigns/j5/transportation.
html

To make an urgently needed contribution to build
June 5 and carry out critical anti-war work go to:
http://www.votenowar.org/donate.html

-- All of Us at VoteNoWar.org