Six Years Too Long -- Military Families Call For End to Iraq War

On the eve of the sixth anniversary of
the beginning of the war in Iraq,
Military Families Speak Out, the largest organization of military
families to
oppose a war in the nation's history, is calling on the American people
to push
President Obama to bring an immediate and complete end to the U.S.
military occupation of Iraq.
In a statement released today the organization said:

Six
years after the
Bush administration (with the majority in Congress complicit) made the
grievously flawed decision to deploy the U.S military to invade Iraq,
the military
occupation continues and Americans and Iraqis are still dying in a war
based on
lies.

Recent
news accounts report
the weariness Americans feel on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the
invasion of Iraq,
and how their focus has turned to the woes the crashing economy has
brought. But it is a different weariness felt by today's
military families. For
us, not only is the economy in shambles, but every day that this war
continues
is another day when so many of our loved ones are in harm's way.
For Iraqis, every day that there are U.S.
troops in Iraq
is another day that their country is under
occupation. The fact that every
month this continuing war drains $10
billion from an economy in crisis seems lost in the day-to-day dramas
of lay-offs
and foreclosures.

President
Obama's
promise that all of our troops will be out of Iraq
by December, 2011 will be cold comfort to
the military families for whom this timeline makes no changes to
deployment
cycles set up under President Bush. These families' sons and
daughters,
husbands, and wives, sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers will
come home
from first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth deployments changed
forever
by lifelong injuries to their bodies, minds, and spirits. Over the next
two
years of the Obama plan, some families will receive loved ones home
from Iraq
in flag-drapped coffins, while others will
witness loved ones who return, only to take their own lives because of
what
they've seen or done in a war that should not be happening.

Military
Families
Speak Out asks President Obama: "How many more deaths are you
willing to accept
in a war that you agree should never have started?" Not one
more death is
acceptable to us.

Military
Families
Speak Out asks Congress: "When is the time for you to step up
to the plate and
stop paying for this war with lives that should not be lost, and with
money
America does not have?" We say: Not one more day, not one
more dime, not one
more life.

It
is long past time
to bring our entire military home from Iraq.
Continuing
the occupation won't bring Iraq
any closer to political
reconciliation. Our military presence in
Iraq
is a cause of violence there, not its
solution.

As
military and Gold
Star families, we are dedicated to doing everything in our power to
bring this
misbegotten war to an end - now. We know that many in America
are struggling with the impacts of a
failing economy. But we want to remind the people of this country that
military
families and our loved ones are also struggling daily with the impacts
of this
on-going war that is being conducted in all of our names, with monies
borrowed
from all of our grandchildren. Military Families Speak Out asks the
American
people: "Will you join us now, on the eve of the seventh year
of a war based on
lies, in calling for an immediate end to
the U.S. military occupation of Iraq, for all of our troops to be
brought home
now, and for them to receive the care they need when they
return?"

Members
of Military Families Speak Out will be taking part
in events protesting the war in cities across the country in the coming
days.

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.