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CONTACT: CODEPINK Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK co-founder, 415-235-6517 |
CODEPINK Calls Obama's Announcement of Timetable, Residual Troops in Iraq a 'Broken Promise'
Americans must continue to push for change
WASHINGTON - February 27 - CODEPINK Women for Peace is disheartened by President Obama's announcement this morning for troop withdrawal by Aug. 2010, later than his campaign promise, leaving residual troops until December 2011.
Americans voted for Obama largely based on his opposition to the war since its start, and his promise to end the occupation in 2009.
"While the move toward withdrawal is positive, this timeline and leaving tens of thousands of residual troops sounds more like occupation-lite than an end to occupation," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK. "But compared to the past eight years of moving backward, at least there's an atmosphere now where we can continue to apply pressure on the administration to push forward."
CODEPINK women call on Obama and his administration to immediately withdraw all U.S. troops, including residual forces from Iraq. Instead, the U.S. government should increase efforts in diplomacy, humanitarian aid and refugee resettlement. Continued troop presence will only encourage more armed opposition within Iraq and will not force the Iraqi government and Iraqi factions to negotiate power. In addition, with the continued presence of U.S. troops, the international community will doubt the U.S. commitment to withdrawal and will wait to invest in diplomatic and reconstruction efforts.
"Up to 50,000 troops is a big number to leave behind," said Dana Balicki, CODEPINK campaign coordinator. "And there hasn't been any word on military bases left in Iraq that will continue to drain billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers at a time where that money is very much needed at home. But the withdrawal, and a timeline, is a baby step forward from past policies. As citizens, it's our job to move Obama to take giant strides."
For interviews and more information, please call Jean Stevens, national media coordinator, at 508-769-2138 or Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK co-founder, at 415-235-6517.
10 Comments so far
Show AllI appreciate Code Pink and the work they do. But come on, not everything is black and white, precisely so and so, etc. This release makes them seem like spoiled children who's dad didn't get them the exact right pony.
Huh?
So 50,000 residual troops left in a land where no one wants them, complete with oil derrick protecting bunkers and high tech massacre-inducing weaponry is any kind of withdrawal? Black, white, grey, black and blue, chartruese or any other combination?
I'm sorry Kane, but as much as I too am happy to have a president who can put a few words together coherently (and why are we so delighted by this? Only because, among politicians, it is an absolute oddity? when it should be an expectation?)as well as one who can fashion a relatively cogent approach to the economic malaise his predecessors brought upon us, I cannot by any stretch of the imagination view keeping 50,000 troops in one of the richest remaining oilfields as anywhere close to resembling a withdrawal, phased or otherwise, black, white, grey, pink or blue.
A broken promise is a broken promise. Perhaps Code Pink's only naiveté was in believing this was a promise that would be kept when it was obvious, to me at least, that it was one made to squeeze votes out of the perennially gullible left.
You sound just like the black and white and simplistic far-right wingers. My point really has nothing to do with Obama. If it were a month into W's first term, and for some reason it was Clinton who lied us into Iraq, I'd be saying the same thing. Or if it was Kucinich who was president instead of Obama. I don't think it would be realistic to expect complete withdrawal. And I don't think it's realistic to expect a candidate's promises, based on partial information, to exactly reflect what they do once in office, given complete information about a situation.
and you, my friend, sound like an apologist for mass murder and resource thuggery and thievery.
same as:
"Well, yes, it would be nice if we could stop torturing people right now, but we just can't, it will take at least a year and a half to stop half the torture, close half the rendition sites, and find places to release these people WE THINK are dangerous enough to be tortured even though they have never been brought to trial or been given any kind of legal counsel. Besides, they are different than us and don't value life like we do"
or, closer to the point...
"it would be nice if we could immediately pull our remaining troops out of your neighborhood, or what's left of it, but we really need some time to figure out how to replace their overwhelmingly positive presence by re-configuring the ranks of our privateers and mercenaries and get them distributed around the oilfields next door to you without too much media pressure to do otherwise (damn that Scahill!). Otherwise we would actually have to get serious about changing our relationship to fossil fuel consumption sooner than the disappearance of oil will force us to, and me and my friends are just not ready to give up our superior oil driven lifestyles. I mean, the car companies just can't change that fast, they can't be expected to use the stimulus money to actually come up with a majority of vehicles that people want to buy. Make no mistake, I want to buy them, every good American should... but then, my friends and I have the 50,000 dollars to spend on a car that gets under 20 miles per gallon! Love those leather interiors, heated seats, and automatic nose hair clippers! I mean it took up half GM's stimulus check just to come up with the new advertising about how hard they are working to come up with new advertising that tells us how hard they are working to come up with new advertising! And can I talk about the cost of the PR the financial industry has had to dream up? Wow. So let's not be too hasty about stopping our wars of conquest before we absolutely have to... a lot can happen in a year and a half and you might all be happy we blew up your cousin's wedding by then. Which brings us to the point:
If I advertise it to be so, it is so!”
Ach! The age of Obama... just a little better at speaking and our woes will disappear!
Please... leave your simplistic thinking behind guy. The glaciers are melting faster than that.
I understand that Obama is under immense pressure not to look "soft on security" and I think the switch in emphasis to Afghanistan is mostly p.r. to reduce that effect.
On Iraq, this is a broken promise and a betrayal.
some pretty deadly PR I guess... kinda like that movie "Network"... what will be done to sell a brand.... sheesh...
and you, my friend, sound like an apologist for mass murder and resource thuggery and thievery.
y'all need to chill out and give the guy a chance - yes, pressure is good, keep it on, but we have troops in Korea, Germany and Japan - are we still at war there? A little perspective and a little less knee-jerk reactivity might be a good thing in this discussion. Afghanistan will be the end of the American empire, in the same way it ended countless empires before. Our remaining troops in Iraq may end up planting trees for all we know, since our military is soon to be defunct.
CodePink is irrelevant. The Media could care less about them. They only cared when CodePink was harassing the GOP.
Stop another Blackwater-like paramilitary facility in the town of Homeland in Riverside County before it's built. It's called Procintu and means gird for battle-prepare for war. From public records, Blackwater USA Staff will instruct "prisoner handling techniques." Think Abu Graib, Guantanamo, waterboarding. Another speciaty is sniper maneuvers, etc., at this compound.
JOIN OUR RALLY AGAINS PROCINCTU ON TUESDAY, March 17th 2009 at 8:30am in Riverside CA. It's in front of the Riverside County Admin/Bldg at 4080 Lemon Street, 92501.
GUEST SPEAKER, Ray Lutz, who helped oust Blackwater from Potrero in San Diego County, CA will join us. After the rally, we will enter the Board Chambers to speak our dismay for such a project to be approved. Please call Ann for more information at 951-679-6728.