Peace Groups Call Nationwide Phone-In to White House Against Afghanistan Escalation

An ad-hoc coalition of national peace advocacy
organizations is calling on people from every corner of the country to
inundate the White House on Monday (November 23rd) with phone calls against military
escalation in Afghanistan.

The groups, including Just Foreign Policy, United for Peace and
Justice, the American Friends Service Committee, Peace Action,
CodePink, Voters for Peace, Pax Christi, CommonDreams.org, Historians
Against War, and the Institute for Policy Studies, are asking people
to call President Obama on Monday, using the White House Comment Line:
202-456-1111.

Recent press reports have suggested that advisors to the President are
"testing" the idea of sending 20,000 - 30,000 more U.S. troops to
Afghanistan in 2010. Now, before the decision is made, the peace
movement wants to make sure the White House hears the widespread
opposition to any escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

"Sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan isn't going to make Americans
safer, and it isn't going to help the people of Afghanistan," said
Robert Naiman, Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy. "Instead of
sending more troops, we need to establish an exit strategy for our
troops, and shift our resources in Afghanistan from war to political
reconciliation, reconstruction and development. The only difference
between reconciliation now and reconciliation later is number of
additional US military and Afghan civilian deaths and injuries that
will happen if reconciliation is delayed."