Last Friday, President Obama announced that the military would begin a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, saying, “After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over. Our troops will definitely be home for the holidays.” Not surprisingly, corporate media chose to highlight the responses of Republican Presidential candidates like Michelle Bachman (who thinks Iraqis need to pay us back for their “liberation”) rather than listening to the people who had struggled to prevent the Iraq war in the first place, and who had spent the past eight years trying to make a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq a reality.
In light of the apparent attainment of a goal so many of us had worked for over the years, what did the peace movement have to say? An awareness of the horrific price paid by the Iraqi and American people made for a somber tone to many of the responses I found. What words can we find to mark the end of a war that never should have happened in the first place?
What about the mercenaries?
The most common response to Obama's announcement was “Yes, but...” with many organizations choosing to highlight the more than 5,000 mercenaries to be left behind in Iraq at our Baghdad embassy and at consulates in Erbil, Mosul and Kirkuk. Mike Ferner of Vets for Peace said, “The mercenaries will technically be under the authority of the State Department, not the War Department, but a killer for hire is not likely to become a diplomat at the stroke of midnight on December 31.”
Who deserves the credit?
The terms of the withdrawal were actually negotiated by the Bush administration at the end of 2008, and the Obama administration made repeated efforts to win Iraqi approval for keeping troops in Iraq past the Dec. 2011 deadline, causing Medea Benajmin of Code Pink to describe the Iraq withdrawal as ”a promise the Obama administration made every effort to break.” David Swanson of warisacrime.org directed his thanks away from the White House and towards the grassroots opposition that forced the U.S. withdrawal, writing: “This would not have happened without the U.S. peace movement that scared U.S. politicians with its popularity three and four years ago. Of course it would also not have happened without Iraqi resistance, nonviolent and violent alike.” Kevin Martin of Peace Action also sent thanks and congratulations to war opponents here and in Iraq, writing: "This is a victory for an entire generation of youth, who have grown up only knowing war. This is a victory for the Iraqi people, who have suffered by the millions and ultimately refused to allow U.S. troops to remain after the agreed upon deadline. And this is a victory for our troops and their families, who are no longer put in danger for an unnecessary war."
Will justice be done?
Many groups included calls for justice in their responses, demanding prosecution for those responsible for the war and reparations for the Iraqi people. Mike Ferner of Vets for Peace wrote, “We have to pay a full measure of reparations to repair what we have destroyed of Iraq’s agriculture and infrastructure and leave a sizable trust fund to at least partially deal with the deformities and childhood cancers caused by our depleted uranium munitions.” Cindy Sheehan noted the absence of these issues from Obama's speech: “The two most important things, though, that I did not hear Obama say are these: prosecuting members of the Bush regime for the hundreds of lies it told about Iraq, and paying reparations to the people of Iraq.“
At what price?
Code Pink reminded us of the terrible cost borne by the Iraqi people, citing a "conservative estimate" of at least 100,000 Iraqi deaths as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation as well as a 2006 study by the British medical journal Lancet that found "more than 650,000 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, factoring in the lack of medical supplies and the civil war the invasion set off." Matt Southworth of Friends Committee on National Legislation took up the cause of wounded veterans, noting that, “Hundreds of thousands of the two million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have filed claims with the Veterans Administration (VA) for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)."
Our to-do list
Recognizing that "the war is not really over, not for military families, not for veterans, and not for the people of Iraq," Military Families Speak Out wrote, “There is still a lot of work to be done, and the voices of military families are more important than ever. We must continue working for an end to the war in Afghanistan, for better treatment of our service members, and for proper care for all veterans. We must hold our government accountable and continue to speak out.” Cindy Sheehan also looked into the future, asking "which war will Obama send these troops that are leaving Iraq to? Pakistan? Afghanistan? Uganda? Iran? Or somewhere else that we can only imagine?" Iraq Veterans Against the War stated a commitment to be part of reconciliation efforts, writing, “IVAW will continue to hold our elected officials accountable and build connections with Iraqi organizations doing rebuilding work on the ground.”
Some national peace organizations have not yet issued statements about the Iraq withdrawal, and I expect to return to this subject as the December 31st withdrawal date comes and goes. For now, I can think of no better closing words than those of Celeste Zappala, Mother of Sgt Sherwood Baker, who was killed on April 26, 2004 in Baghdad: “So we can rejoice that a day will come when soldiers will not be in danger in Iraq, and we can pray that all those injured in body and spirit will be offered the healing they need and deserve. Can we promise them we as a Nation will never again send them in to wars based on lies? I fear not, I fear the business of war will always require a market, and unless we are all powerfully vocal, the idea of wars of choice will perpetuate.”
Steve Burns is Program Director of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.
Concealed carry of weapons becomes legal in Wisconsin on Nov. 1, and local governments across the state are deciding whether to allow weapons in public buildings. Most communities are saying no.