[Marxism] March on the Pentagon! March 21, 2009

[Chris Gauvreau <chris_gauvreau@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://natassembly.org/Home_Page.html



Troops Home Now

 From Iraq and Afghanistan



March on the Pentagon! March 21, 2009

The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and  
Occupations is joining with other coalitions, organizations, and  
networks in a united MARCH 21 NATIONAL COALITION to organize the  
broadest mobilization of people across the United States to take part  
in a March on the Pentagon on the sixth year of the military invasion  
and occupation of the Iraq War: Saturday, March 21.

Demonstrations will also be held on that date in San Francisco, Los  
Angeles, and other cities across the U.S.

These actions will remind the nation that all U.S. military forces  
must be brought home from Afghanistan and Iraq, and that the U.S.  
antiwar movement – marching behind a banner demanding “Out Now!’ –  
will intensify its struggle to make it happen.

The actions are needed to assure the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and  
other countries threatened by Washington’s expansionist policies that  
tens of millions of people in this country support their right to  
settle their own destinies without U.S. interventions, occupations  
and murderous wars. International law recognizes – and we demand –  
that the U.S. respect the right to self-determination. We reject any  
notion that the U.S. is the world’s self-appointed cop.

The March 21 united mass actions are also needed at this time of  
economic meltdown to demand jobs for all; a moratorium on  
foreclosures; rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure; guaranteed,  
quality health care for all; an end to the ICE raids and  
deportations; and funding for sorely needed social programs. So long  
as trillions of dollars continue to be spent on wars, occupations,  
and bailouts to the banks and corporate elite, the domestic needs of  
the people of the U.S. can never be met.

The So-called Status of Forces Agreement

As for Iraq, the so-called “Status of Forces Agreement” offers proof  
positive that far from ending the U.S. occupation, the plan is to  
extend it indefinitely. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops and  
mercenary soldiers will be maintained to carry out a number of stated  
missions, but in reality their aim is to carry out the one mission  
that is not stated: Ensure the U.S. subjugation of Iraq to exploit  
its oil resources and dominate the Middle East.

Any doubt about Washington’s intentions should be dispelled by the  
statement by Gen. Raymond Odierno who said on December 13, 2008 that  
U.S. forces would remain indefinitely in dozens of bases in Iraq  
cities, despite the language in the Status of Forces Agreement that  
appears to require a withdrawal from urban areas by next summer.  
(Wall Street Journal 12/15/08)

As for Afghanistan, it is not the “good war” claimed by the Obama  
administration and the power structure, which plans to increase the  
number of U.S. troops in that country by 20,000. Afghanistan will  
prove to be another U.S. Vietnam. The Soviet Union’s intervention in  
Afghanistan resulted in a million Afghanis being killed, along with  
15,000 Soviet troops. The U.S. war will only result in a continuation  
of the slaughter that has been the hallmark of all previous  
occupations by foreign powers.

The daily U.S. bombing and killing of Afghanis attending weddings,  
classes, funerals, or simply trying to survive shows how cruel and  
deadly this war is. It is directed against the same forces that the  
U.S. armed, financed, and helped bring to power.

Why is the U.S. at war against Afghanistan? To gain control of a  
pipeline across that country. (See the 1998 statement submitted to  
Congress by the Union Oil Company of California, which later merged  
with Chevron, stressing the need to build a natural gas pipeline  
across Afghanistan. And note Dick Cheney’s 1998 statement made when  
he was chief executive of a major oil services company: “I cannot  
think of a time when we have had a region emerge suddenly to become  
as strategically significant as the Caspian,” which led the Guardian  
newspaper to remark “But the oil and gas there is worthless until it  
is moved. The only route that would make both political and economic  
sense is through Afghanistan.”)

The March 21 demonstration will also highlight the dangers of  
expanding Washington’s two wars to Iran and Pakistan. It will also  
condemn U.S. support for the continued occupation of Palestine.

The National Assembly

 From its inception, the National Assembly to End the Iraq and  
Afghanistan Wars and Occupations has called for united antiwar  
demonstrations this spring. We urge the entire movement to unite now  
around March 21. We will do everything possible to make this unity a  
reality.

Think of the civil rights, union, anti-Vietnam War, women’s  
liberation and gay rights movements.  They would not have achieved  
victories without having built truly massive movements that were able  
to organize repeated and powerful independent mobilizations in the  
streets.

Why the demonstration in Washington? Because it is the seat of power,  
where foreign and domestic policies are decided, where money for war  
is allocated, and bailouts of the banking industry and corporate rich  
are given away.

Join us in mobilizing the largest possible outpouring of antiwar  
opposition built by a united movement on March 21. Let’s march and  
continue to march until all U.S. forces come home, U.S. bases are  
dismantled, and the sovereign people of the world have the right to  
control their own resources and determine their own futures.

To endorse the March 21 March on the Pentagon, please click here.
To send a contribution to support the National Assembly’s work,  
please click here.

For more information, please visit the National Assembly’s website at  
www.natassembly.org or write natassembly@xxxxxxx or call 216-736-4704.



Christine M. Gauvreau

chris_gauvreau@xxxxxxxxxxx
254 Main St. A31
West Haven, CT 06516
860 478 5300



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