December, 14 2011, 11:37am EDT
As Iraq War Nearly Ends, So Should Afghanistan War
President Obama's announcement today at Fort Bragg that the Iraq War is ending has been long-awaited by Americans and the peace movement.
WASHINGTON
President Obama's announcement today at Fort Bragg that the Iraq War is ending has been long-awaited by Americans and the peace movement.
"This war nearly ends at a tremendous cost of Iraqi and American lives and to U.S. taxpayers. While the U.S. footprint of the largest embassy and other personnel left behind is too large, it's good that President Obama is doing what he said on the campaign trial," observed Paul Kawika Martin, the political and policy director of Peace Action -- a group founded in 1957 and the largest grassroots peace organization in the U.S.
Opposing the war from the start, Peace Action participated in the February 2003 protest where tens of millions around the world voiced their opposition. Afterwords, Peace Action continued to help organize all the large demonstrations and was a key group focusing opposition on Congress.
The groups also warns that the U.S. government needs to remember the long-lasting affects on millions of Iraqis and the more than one million U.S. service members. Additionally, the U.S. will continue to pay the costs of the war with the debt and honoring our commitments to our veterans will bring the total cost of the Iraq War to over $3 trillion.
"Now that the Iraq war is ending, President Obama must end the other war that the majority of Americans oppose: Afghanistan. The Obama Administration needs to end the Afghanistan within a year, which is American voters want," concluded Martin.
Peace Action is the United States' largest peace and disarmament organization with over 100,000 members and nearly 100 chapters in 34 states, works to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs and encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights.
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