Obama: Bring All Our Troops Home From Iraq Now!

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.