WASHINGTON - February 26 - As President Obama prepares to announce plans for a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, members of Military Families Speaking Out are calling for an immediate and complete end to the U.S. military occupation of that country.

According to published reports, President Obama will announce this week that he plans to reduce troop levels in Iraq over the course of nineteen months and leave up to 50,000 troops in Iraq indefinitely. 

April Medlin, a Military Families Speak Out chapter leader from Las Vegas, NV said:

"My brother began his 3rd deployment to Iraq in Dec. 2008. He is a U.S. Army Tank Commander. While it is encouraging to hear that some of the troops will be returning home, I can't help but feel concern for the soldiers, and for the families of those who won't be returning. It is an outrage for even one service member to remain! True change only occurs when it happens to all of us - military families and our loved ones. True change only happens when a war that should never have happened is ended.. People have got to stop dying in Iraq, before I will feel like 'Change' has come."

Larry Syverson of Richmond, VA serves on the Board of Directors of Military Families Speak Out and is the father of three sons who have served in Iraq -- one of whom is scheduled to return there later this year with an Army Stryker brigade.  Syverson said:

"President Obama knew that the war in Iraq was wrong to begin with -- and it is still wrong today.  It's unconscionable to continue risking the lives of our brave young men and women like my son, and subjecting the Iraqi people to a military occupation in a war based on lies.  The American people and the Iraqi people want this war to end.  If President Obama is not willing to end it once and for all, then Congress will have to force him to by refusing to fund its continuation."

Members of Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families Speak Out are available for interview including those whose loved ones are now serving in Iraq or will soon be sent there, those whose loved ones suffered physical and psychological injuries in Iraq, and those whose loved ones died as a result of the war in Iraq.