"A campaign is being launched this week by a host of groups including
Progressive Democrats of America, Peace Action and others to demand
an exit strategy from Iraq. A central part of these efforts is a new
petition which lays out a way to get out of Iraq and will be
presented to Congress in mid-September."
(description from Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation 8/16/05)

This statement is one of the most concise and well worded arguments for why we need to get out of Iraq now. it covers so many problems in so few words. it lays out the reasons and provides the bedrock initiatives that would lead to a dignified end to the occupation. I wanted to share this with people, so I'm posting it here.
Enjoy.

[size=m]A Petition for an Iraqi Peace Process[/size]

"For Mr. Bush, questions about an exit strategy in Iraq have become
especially delicate as a crowd of anti-war protesters has expanded at
the edge of his ranch, rallying around Cindy Sheehan, the California
woman whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004."--New York Times,
Aug. 12, 2005.

Like our friend Cindy Sheehan, we are tired of waiting for our troops
to come home. We are tired of the bloodshed, tired of tax dollar
waste, tired of torture cover-ups, tired of contractor scandals,
tired of deceit and fabrication. We are tired of elected officials
with profiles in compromise rather than courage.

It is dishonest to admit there were no weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq, only to invent new reasons for inflicting mass destruction on
that country.

It is dishonorable to fix the facts around the policy.

It is unacceptable to admit that going to war was a mistake, only to
claim that the mistake must be perpetuated.

Because we cannot wait for our government to lead, we shall become
leaders in ending the war ourselves. We shall propose an exit
strategy from Iraq and demand that our government listen and follow.
Because we cannot wait for our government to plan for peace, we call
on civil society to make our government pay attention.

There are simply no military solutions to this bloodshed. The
American military presence, threatening to Iraqi nationalism,
religion and culture, is the main cause of the violent response from
Iraqis. US policies are pushing Iraq toward civil war, with our
government funding and arming Shiites and Kurds against Sunnis.
Nearly half of the Iraqi national assembly has called for the
“departure of the occupation”. The State Department’s own internal
surveys show that a majority of Iraqis feel less safe in the presence
of the American occupying forces. Since the invasion and occupation,
the status and safety of women in Iraq have declined precipitously.

Iraqis themselves are calling for the end of occupation. One million
recently signed a petition demanding the withdrawal of foreign forces
from Iraq. Initial peace talks among Iraqis are already underway. Our
government is deaf to these Iraqi voices for peace.

It is time to shift from a military model to a conflict-resolution
model aimed at a peace process and negotiated political settlement.

We propose the following principles as essential to ending the
war in Iraq:

First, as a confidence-building measure, the US government must
declare that it has no interest in permanent military bases or the
control of Iraqi oil or other resources.

Second, as a further confidence-building measure, the U.S. government
must set goals for ending the occupation and bringing all our troops
home - in months, not years, beginning with an initial withdrawal of
troops by the end of this year.

Third, the US government must request that the United Nations monitor
the process of military disengagement and de-escalation, and organize
a peaceful reconstruction effort. The US must accept its obligation
to fairly compensate Iraqis for damages, assist Iraqi reconstruction,
cease the imposition of privatization schemes, and end the dominance
of US contractors in the bidding process.

Fourth, the US government should appoint a peace envoy independent of
the occupation authorities to underscore its commitment to an
entirely different mission, that of a peace process ending the
occupation and returning our soldiers home.

Fifth, the peace envoy should encourage and cooperate in talks with
Iraqi groups opposed to the occupation, including insurgents, to
explore a political settlement. The settlement must include
representation of opposition forces and parties, and power-sharing
and the protection of women's rights as core principles of governance
and economic and energy development. We believe such an initiative
will reduce, though not eliminate, violence by lessening any
rationale for Jihadist or sectarian conflict.

We send this message to all Americans in civil society, to our
elected officials, and to the global peace movement. We demand that
Congressional hearings begin to define an exit strategy now. We
demand that members of Congress, reflecting the will of the people,
adopt policy and budget initiatives that call for an exit strategy
based on the above principles. We demand a peace envoy, peace talks
with the opposition, reconstruction, the closure of US bases, and the
safe return home of all US troops.

Congress refused to approve Bush's appointment for UN Ambassador, so what's the solution? maybe we should pick a different person, perhaps someone that isn't so controversial, maybe someone who is representative of americans and their elected officials in washington. Maybe Bush should go to his second or third choice seing as how John Bolton doesen't even have the support of a good number of Republicans, let alone Democrats. The responsable, American, --pride in our fine democratic system which we hope to spread around the globe-- thing to do, would be to appoint someone who is representative of the greatest number of Americans and their ideals. Afterall this person is the face that America choses to represent their collective interests on the world stage.
Obviously the Bush administration is not at all interested in Democracy no matter how many times they use the word to justify their actions. the goal for Bush and his Neo-conservative buddies is... ABSOLUTE POWER!!!!!
Bush "sidestepped" Congress and appointed Bolton anyway. he waited untill the senate was in recess so that they could not vote against him, infact they couldn't vote at all because they're Not There!!!! ... wait a minute let me say that one more time, Our President didn't like the result when he used the democratic means sanctioned under our constitution, so he avoided democracy entirely and forced america and the world to accept his decision whether they like it or not.

From the NY Times

here's one article from Yahoo News

I like this site, but unfortunately I haven't had much time to mess around with it and post much. so to show some love here's a link to my Flickr Photos.


:)

Yay for ElmwoodStrip.com