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On President Bush's 2005 State of the UnionWednesday, February 2, 2005 Contacts: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On the eve of President Bush's 2005 State of the Union address on February 2, Green Party leaders renewed the party's call for a quick end to the occupation of Iraq and return home for U.S. troops, and urged Americans to reject the President's Social Security privatization plan. "We know that Mr. Bush will discuss the Iraq election and the occupation, and that he'll promote his Social Security plan," said Peggy Lewis, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "We also expect him to remain silent on certain issues, especially the compromised 2004 election in the U.S. in some states, the GOP plan to dismantle employer-based health coverage, and recent news of an approaching 'point of no return' for global warming," Green Party leaders and activists offered several comments on these issues: Iraq: the election and the occupation Like all Americans who value democracy, Greens were moved by the courage of millions of Iraqis who risked injury and death to vote. But Greens assert that the conditions for democratic elections were lacking in the Iraqi election on Sunday. "Democracy means exercising of the will of the people for self-determination, and under the coercion of a draconian military occupation, no such process can occur," said Aimee Smith, co-chair of the Peace Action Committee of the Green Party of the United States. "We cannot recognize as legitimate an election run under conditions of military occupation by a foreign power -- not in occupied Palestine, not in occupied Afghanistan, and not in occupied Iraq. Elections cannot take place in the context of military rule, restrictions on freedom of the press, restrictions on mobility through checkpoints and closures, required foreign approval or external sources of funds for occupier-favored candidates, detentions and killings by the occupiers of less favored candidates and other leaders, and where the vote is administered by a foreign invader -- by definition, an enemy of the people who've been invaded and occupied." "President Bush will claim the Iraqi election justifies the U.S. invasion," said Tony Affigne, co-chair of the Green Party's International Committee. "But Iraqi aspirations for democratic government can't justify Bush's lies to the world about Iraq's 'imminent threat.' Last year's State of the Union, in which Bush presented to the American people his reasons for invading Iraq, turned out to be pure disinformation: weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist, imaginary collusion between Saddam and al-Qaeda, and fictitious nuclear weapons deals in Africa." "Greens don't believe democracy can ever be built on deceit, invasion, and the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis," Affigne added. "In fact, any future Iraqi government, with or without a U.S. occupation, will face new levels of extremist, antidemocratic violence, unleashed by the U.S. invasion itself." Green Party leaders also warn that past western
treatment of ethnic divisions in Iraq (such as disparate policies for
the Kurds in the north) and the U.S. invasion may have made civil war
inevitable. Greens recall that on September 3, 1967, South Vietnam held
a presidential election with strong voter turnout, which did nothing to
halt Vietnam's slide into a bloodbath, with over three million deaths,
as a result of the U.S. invasion. "It's likely that the carnage, collapse of infrastructure, widespread rape, looting, etc. will continue in Iraq, and that more civilians and U.S. troops will die until the U.S. ends the occupation -- and may continue after the occupation, too, because of the breakdown of civil society and infrastructure caused by the invasion," said Ann Link, member of the Green Party of New York State Committee. President Bush will likely praise the election as an advance towards Iraqi national sovereignty, but Greens are skeptical that Iraq will have control over its own laws or will be constrained by U.S. demands, such as the decrees from occupation administrator Paul Bremer opening up Iraqi businesses and many resources to up to 100% foreign ownership, i.e., by U.S. corporations, and prohibiting formation of labor unions during the "campaign period." Iraqi Finance Minister Abdel Mahdi has already indicated that Iraq would open up foreign investment in Iraq's oil industy, saying "I think this is very promising to the American investors and to American enterprise, certainly to oil companies" (December 22, 2004 joint appearance with U.S. Undersecretary of State Alan Larson at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.). Mr. Mahdi was approved by the U.S. to run in January 31 election. "Implicit in such announcements is that the U.S. may threaten to withdraw protection for the new Iraqi government, and for favored politicians like Mr. Mahdi, if they don't allow U.S. corporations to own and control Iraqi oil," said Tony Gronowicz, member of the party's International Committee and author of the forthcoming 'Grand Illusion: American Democracy from the Virginia Company to Enron.' "The Bush Administration's chief interest in Iraq and the Middle East in general -- control over oil and other resources -- is certain to come into conflict with Iraq's national sovereignty." A final Green comment on the Iraqi election: as the Center for Voting and Democracy http://www.fairvote.org has observed, Iraq and Afghanistan are now 109 of 119 democracies around the world where the right to vote is guaranteed. "Ironically, the Bush Administration does not extend this guarantee to American voters -- President Bush's 2000 'victory' was based on a Supreme Court opinion holding that no right to vote exists in national U.S. elections," said Marc Sanson, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Iraqi voters enjoyed automatic and same-day registration, which is prohibited in most U.S. states; all Iraqi political parties were welcome to participate, while in the U.S., many states have laws enacted by Democratic and Republican officials that hinder third parties and independents. And while President Bush promoted the impending democratic election in Iraq, his own party allegedly tampered with elections in Ohio, New Mexico, and possibly other states, as shown by the recountefforts led by 2004 Green presidential candidate David Cobb. Social Security; health insurance, and the social safety net Just as the Bush Administration, especially President Bush and recently confirmed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, misled the American people about the 'imminent threat' to the U.S. from Saddam Hussein, President Bush is now selling a plan to privatize Social Security with blatant misinformation, including his recent claims that the system will go broke in 2042. The President is likely to use the same misinformation when he promotes his Social Security plan during his State of the Union address. Greens strongly oppose Mr. Bush's attempts to 'reform' Social Security, and have called his privatization plan a handout to Wall Street brokerages and an assault on the financial security of working people. See the Green Party's press release of January 14, 2005 (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_01_14.html). Greens favor lifting the cap on Social Security that right now only taxes the first $90,000 of wages, which would easily raise billions of dollars to ease the burden on many Americans who subsist on paltry retirement incomes. Perhaps by design, Mr. Bush's Social Security privatization scheme has eclipsed another attack by Mr. Bush and his fellow Republicans on the security of middle- and low-income working Americans: their plan to dismantle employer-provided health coverage, and convert health coverage to a "personal account" system. Greens favor neither system, but warn that personal accounts will leave Americans even more vulnerable to restrictions imposed by health insurance companies and will result in an increase far beyond the current 45 million uninsured Americans. President Bush is placing numerous domestic social programs on the chopping block in order to pay for his tax cuts for the wealthy and the Iraq war and occupation. Especially endangered is Medicaid, which is rapidly becoming a program for senior citizens rather than the traditional health care for poor children and adults. Mr. Bush wants to end the entitlement status for Medicaid, replacing it with block grants to states, which will struggle to control spiraling Medicaid costs by cutting back on health care services for nonsenior adults and children. The Green Party supports conversion to a single-payer national health insurance program, which would provide low-cost, quality universal coverage and allow choice of health care provider. Global Warming President Bush is unlikely, in his address, to mention the findings of the International Climate Change Taskforce (convened by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the U.K., the Center for American Progress in the U.S., and the Australia Institute) warning of a global warming timebomb if the G8 nations do not take immediate action. The Green Party has called for the U.S. to sign onto the Kyoto accord, and for Kyoto to be renegotiated to include more far-reaching measures to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Greens call the current goal of a reduction of 5% to 1991 levels severely inadequate. As the world's highest energy consumer, the U.S. must implement such measures at home, and not wait for other nations to catch up to us. If President Bush continues to base his energy policy on corporate interests, his administration will be remembered for endangering future generations as the world begins to suffer the environmental, food supply, and public health consequences of catastrophic climate change. See the Task Force's report at:
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