Steve Burns: Out of Iraq ... in 2011?

On Thursday, the Iraqi parliament approved, by a vote of 149 to 35, a new "security agreement" with the U.S. government requiring a complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011. The text, according to an english translation obtained by McClatchy newspapers seems quite unambiguous on this point. Article 24, "Withdrawal of the United States Forces from Iraq", states that, "All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011." No exceptions are made to permit any residual troops for training Iraqi forces or engaging in "counter-terrorism" missions - both purposes for which President-elect Obama had stated he would like to keep some troops in Iraq, under a 16-month partial withdrawal plan he had proposed during the Presidential campaign.

The agreement also makes clear that this is the maximum amount of time that U.S. troops can remain in Iraq, and permits an earlier withdrawal, if either the U.S. or Iraqi governments desire it, stating: "The United States recognizes the sovereign right of the government of Iraq to request the departure of the United States forces from Iraq at any time. The Government of Iraq recognizes the sovereign right of the United States to withdraw the United States forces from Iraq at any time."

The possibility of an earlier withdrawal should provide clear direction for those of us in the U.S. peace movement: our job is to continue to bring pressure from our side for a complete and rapid withdrawal, to get the U.S. government to exercise the "escape clause" so clearly spelled out above.

Setting aside the question of the timetable, there are some very positive aspects to the agreement:

-- The agreement eliminates the grant of legal immunity given to U.S. "military contractors", or mercenaries by U.S. consul Paul Bremer in 2003. These hired gunmen can now be arrested by Iraqi police and prosecuted by Iraqi courts, and the agreement may even permit the Iraqi government to prosecute crimes by U.S, mercenaries that were committed before the agreement was passed by the Parliament.

-- The agreement requires the U.S. to withdraw all forces from Iraqi towns and cities by June 30, 2009. All missions by U.S. troops would require approval of the Iraqi government, and U.S. forces could not conduct any house raid or arrest any person without a warrant issued by an Iraqi court.

-- The agreement prohibits any attacks by the U.S. on other countries without the consent of the Iraqi government. Raids like the recent cross-border attack by U.S. special forces on a farm on the Syrian side of the Syria-Iraq border would be prohibited, as would any U.S. raids or attacks on Iran.

Of course, these positive provisions are meaningless if they are not enforced. There is an important role for the U.S. peace movement, working with our counterparts in Iraqi civil society, to publicize here in the U.S. any violations of the agreement by our own goverment. U.S. compliance over the short term will also be motivated by an important change won by opponents of the pact: the agreement must be submitted to the people of Iraq for approval by referendum by July of 2009. Since the U.S. government will want a "yes" vote on the agreement (which is by no means assured) it is more likely to abide closely by the agreement's provisions, at least over the next six months.

What are others in the peace movement saying about the agreement? Iraqi activist Raed Jarrar, of American Friends Service Committee, has been very critical of the process by which the agreeement was negotiated and approved, noting that the Iraqi constitution requires a two-thirds majority to ratify treaties, while Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki claimed that only a simple majority was required (it should be noted that many of Iraq's 275 members of Parliament no longer live in Iraq or attend Parliament - due to the security situation - so the 149 "yes" votes for the agreement constitute a slim majority of the total Parliament.)

Below, Raed comments on the agreement on Iranian TV. I was struck by his claim that for most Iraqis, the idea of a "complete" withdrawal (which the agreement provides) is more important that the idea of "immediate" withdrawal.

Tom Hayden has also written frequently on the agreement, taking a very critical stance. Initially, his position was that the agreement was an attempt by the Bush administration to "tie the hands" of the incoming President. He has become less emphatic on this point as successive drafts of the agreement have been released, although his most recent commentary includes the claim that, under the agreement, "President-elect Obama will be acquiescing in a doubling of his 16 month deadline for withdrawal of combat troops." It's hard to see how this is the case, given that the agreement clearly gives the U.S. the right to withdraw its troops from Iraq "at any time."

Hayden sees the agreement as a "challenge for the anti-war movement", writing, "Unless the pact is violated, it is difficult to imagine hundreds of thousands demonstrating to bring the troops home in 2010 instead of 2011," and, "... the steady return of thousands of American soldiers will send a powerful message to most Americans that the Iraq War is ending, perhaps not soon enough, but ending nonetheless."

How should the peace movement meet the challenge that Tom Hayden sees ahead? I'll write more on this subject later, but please feel free to leave your own ideas in comments.

Steve Burns is Program Coordinator of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

Elton Tylenda: When Will We Ever Learn?

Veterans Day one year later and Veterans for Peace members once again erected a Memorial Mile of tombstone replicas to demonstrate the growing cost in blood of our illegal wars of occupation. This year the display is along Speedway road in Forest Hill Cemetery. Walking the mile in the cold and gloom I thought of a poem learned as a child titled "In Flanders Fields." A Canadian officer wrote it in 1915 while viewing the crosses of those killed in WWI, "the great war - the war to end wars." The lines of that poem altered in my mind to: In Madison the tombstones grow amid the leaves row on row.

This year it took hundreds of feet of additional ground and tombstones to represent the wasted lives from year five of Bush's folly. In reality "the war to end wars" actually set the stage for WWII and our present wars of aggression actually generate more hatred and terror throughout the world.

The Memorial Mile is one attempt to resurrect the truth which has been lost in the false glorification and heroism of war fueled by the Pentagon's paid propagandists posing as independent analysts and journalists. There are real heroes in times of war but they go unrecognized until people can see through the "fog of war" that propaganda generates. Friedrich Sigmund-Schultze, the German who refused to be part of his country's war of aggression in 1914 and later co-founded the international peace group The Fellowship Of Reconciliation, is a good example. At the time he was berated and jailed as a traitor.

Today we have a growing number of Iraq veterans like former staff sergeant Camilo Majia who was featured in the PBS documentary, "Soldiers of Conscience." He was jailed and dishonorably discharged from the military for his heroic efforts to inform us about, and take a stand against, the slaughter of civilians and other war crimes in Iraq. As a combat soldier in Vietnam I didn't have the courage to take a stand against the brutal mistreatment and murders of civilians there. So unlike Mejia I was rewarded for being a "good" boy blindly following orders and playing it safe. In the light of Majia's heroism my medal, and honorable discharge feel like a badge of cowardice and shame. Majia and veterans like him deserve the highest honor and not just on Veterans Day. They are the conscience of our nation in these dark times.

People viewing the Memorial Mile might consider the following: the thousands of veterans who committed suicide are not represented here, nor are the hundreds of KBR and Blackwater mercenaries killed since 2001; If VFP set tombstones in the same dense pattern to represent civilians killed in Iraq, the display would run uninterrupted for over 200 miles; and active duty soldiers consider this – When I returned to Vietnam 30 yrs after the war I was asked by a woman, "why did you come half way across the world to kill us?" The reasons I would have given her 30 yrs ago have since been exposed as lies - just three remain: control of the Michelin rubber plantations, corporate profits, and permanent bases to protect corporate profits. In Iraq it will come down to control of oil, corporate profits, and permanent bases to protect corporate profits. Is that worth dying for? Or worse, is that worth killing for?

Looking around the cemetery I see thousands of flowers on hundreds of graves of soldiers killed from the civil war to the present, and Pete Seger's song replays in my head: "where have all the flowers gone?...gone to graveyards every one...when will they ever learn?" We the majority can change this with or without the support of president Obama – yes we can! WE are the ones we've been waiting for. Exposing the truth about slavery led to its end. In the true spirit of Armistice – now Veterans Day, together we can do the same about war.

Elton Tylenda is a Madison resident and member of the Clarence Kailing Vets for Peace Chapter 25.

Hello, Mr. President!

In his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of people in Chicago's Grant Park, President-elect Barack Obama said, "I will listen to you, especially when we disagree."

Peace and Justice activists seem to be taking him at his word, with a proliferation of online petitions aimed at pushing an Obama administration in a more progressive and peaceful direction.

Just Foreign Policy has a customizable e-letter which can be used to ask our new President to:

• Negotiate an agreement with the Iraqi government for the complete and timely withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, as the Iraqi government has demanded
• Establish real diplomacy with Iran, beginning with the establishment of US diplomatic representation in Iran.
• Make a fresh start on US efforts to help resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict and take seriously U.S. policy against Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
• End the embargo against Cuba and establish dialogue with Cuba's government.
• Move quickly to repair relations with Bolivia and Venezuela, negotiating the return of ambassadors.
• Put military spending on the table for cuts and consider Rep. Barney Frank's proposal for a 25% cut in military spending.

The possibility that Obama might select Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as his own Treasury Secretary has also triggered a quick response. As chief economist for the World Bank, Summers authored a controversial memo arguing that the bank should actively encourage the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries, particularly "under-populated countries in Africa," which Summers described as "under-polluted." Summers added that public outrage over the heightened rates of cancer caused by his proposed dumping would be mitigated by the fact that poor people in developing countries rarely live long enough to develop cancer. Summers was also responsible for much of the deregulation of Wall Street that led to the current financial crisis.

And finally, Bonnie Block, past Chair of WNPJ, has some words for President-Elect Obama, printed recently in the Madison Capital Times:

Dear Mr. President:

I'm not going to congratulate you on being elected, because you will be taking office during what is a dark and difficult time for America. Major changes are needed, and here's what I hope you will do.

I hope you will act in a way that begins to restore trust in government as an instrument for the common good rather than for the special interests that fund campaigns and run Wall Street.

I hope that you won't lie to us -- about the reasons for going to war or about the changes that we must make to halt global warming or about the fact that unbridled capitalism has failed because its focus is on getting more instead of having enough.

I hope you will cut the military spending that now takes almost half of our federal budget, and instead use diplomacy and development assistance to create a more peaceful world. As Jeannette Rankin, the first woman member of Congress, said, "You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake." Iraq is a textbook example.

I hope you will act to bring about economic justice so that the top 10 percent of Americans no longer own 70 percent of the wealth. We need social investment, fair taxation and living wages -- not bailouts for the super rich.

I hope you will work to restore America's good name by being a constructive member of the United Nations, by honoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by supporting the Millennium Development Goals to alleviate the poverty of the 1 billion people living on less than a dollar a day.

I hope you will not pander to our fears or scapegoat any group for the difficult straits we're in. Help us become global citizens who will live with compassion for this fragile "third planet from the sun."

I hope you will appeal to our better nature so that together we can make the dream of our founders for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" a reality for everyone, not just a privileged few.

Bonnie Block
President, Dane County Chapter of the United Nations Association