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Monday, October 6, 2003
Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Instead, fund an international effort for Iraqi
security instead and bring U.S. troops home by the holidays, say Greens.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Officials and activists of the
Green Party of the United States demanded that Congress reject the White
House's request of an additional $87 billion for the occupation of
Iraq. The request was already approved unanimously by the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
"We're alarmed by the bipartisan support for
this occupation bill," said Ben Manski, co-chair of the Green Party
of the United States. "All of the Democratic frontrunners
said they'd grant President Bush his request. This is money down
the drain, with American and Iraqi lives lost in the interim. It's
time for Congress to live up to its constitutional obligations and tell
the President no."
The Green Party has urged several steps to restore
self-rule and peace in Iraq, including the withdrawal of all U.S. troops
from Iraq in time for the winter holidays, and funding of a U.N.
transition team to ensure Iraqi security. The party endorsed the
Uniting For Peace resolution in the United Nations, which would give the
U.N. primary authority in Iraq over humanitarian relief, reconstruction,
and the formation of a new government.
Greens cited several reasons to back their charge
that the $87 billion request would amount to a misappropriation of U.S.
taxpayers' money and resources that would be better spent on pressing
domestic needs:
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After a six-month search, U.S. forces and CIA
experts have failed to locate any Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction. "Saddam Hussein's alleged possession of WMDs
was the basis for the Bush Administration's fraudulent assertion
that Iraq was an imminent threat," said Marnie Glickman,
co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.
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U.S. troops are dying at an average of 3-6 per
week, injured at an average of 40 per week, and continue to face
death, injury, and extended terms of service in an often hostile
nation. "The occupation is really a low intensity war, in
which hardly a day passes without several American casualties,"
said J. Roy Cannon, chair of the Peace Committee of the Green Party
of Delaware.
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The Pentagon has proven unwilling to allow
democracy in Iraq. The day after national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice told the National Association of Black Journalists,
at their annual meeting in Dallas last month, that the Iraqi people
were ready for freedom and compared the liberation of Iraq to the
U.S. civil rights struggle, Bush officials declared that Iraq was
not yet fit for self-government and rejected the
U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council's call for a quick
transfer of power.
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The occupation has quickly turned into a
multibillion-dollar cash cow for firms linked to the Bush White
House, including Halliburton, whose profits from occupation
contracts have already topped $1.4 billion. The New York Times
reported on September 30 that top Bush campaign donors and former
Bush aides with influence in the administration have set up a
consulting firm, New Bridge Strategies, to advise companies seeking
occupation contracts in Iraq, especially taxpayer-financed
reconstruction projects. In September, the Green Party
endorsed the 'Stop the War Profiteers' campaign initiated by
Durham's Institute for Southern Studies.
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Highlights of the request include $3.6 million
for 600 radios and phones ($6,000 each); $33,000 each for 80 pick-up
trucks (U.S. cost: $14,000); and numerous other padded costs and
golden turkeys.
"For most Iraqis, as for most Americans,
democracy means the power of people to run their nation according to
their own needs and interests," said Marnie Glickman.
"For Bush, and for most Democrats and Republicans, democracy means
privatization of public resources for the benefit of corporations.
These are the terms of the occupation; the $87 billion request
will mainly be a new windfall for Washington insiders and war
profiteers."
MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Greens call for the return of U.S. troops from Iraq
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_08_20_03.html
Greens call for impeachment of Bush, withdrawal of troops by the winter
holidays
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_07_21_03.html
"Iraqi guerrillas killing 3 to 6 GIs weekly, general says"
Associated Press, October 3, 2003
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1762/4133070.html
Uniting for Peace Coalition
http://www.uniting-for-peace.net
Campaign to Stop the War Profiteers
Institute for Southern Studies
http://www.southernstudies.org
search:
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