MORE THAN 290 EVENTS HELD TO MOURN 3000 U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ WAR
Janis D. Shields
Website: http://www.afsc.org
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PHILADELPHIA [JANUARY 1] As you read this, America has reached a tragic milestone -- 3,000 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. To mourn all military and civilian casualties in the Iraq war, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker peace and social justice organization and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, is sponsoring events tonight between 7- 8 p.m. local time in more than 290 communities across the country. A list of activities across the country can be found at www.afsc.org/3000/.
Not One More Death, Not One More Dollar activities will be held in 46 cities, including: Pershing Square, downtown Los Angeles; the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco; Union Square, Manhattan; 125 Street, Harlem, New York; and the West Lawn of U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C.
The Service Committee believes not one more Iraqi civilian or U.S. soldier should be killed; not one more U.S. dollar should be spent sustaining war and occupation. Instead, Congress should fund diplomatic efforts and Iraqi-led reconstruction of their country.
The Iraq war has lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in World War II. U.S. military deaths in this war have exceeded the number of those killed in the first four years of Vietnam.
Estimates of Iraqi casualties vary widely, but a recent Johns Hopkins study published in The Lancet puts the figure as high as 600,000 Iraqis killed.
One thing is certain: the human cost of the Iraq war is staggering.
Even former general and Secretary of State Colin Powell has supported a troop drawdown. Yet outgoing members of Congress and the Bush administration are signaling that troop increases may soon come.
"One hundred or more dead people every day and night is an outrage," observed Jan Egeland, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in December. "I know of no other place on earth where so many people are killed, massacred and tortured to death as in Iraq."
The American Friends Service Committee believes that there is no military solution to the Iraq war. Continued fighting and occupation promises only further deaths and injuries, more widows and orphans, more separated families.
A clear majority in the U.S. and Iraq want troops to come home.
The U.S. is spending more than $8 billion a month to fight this war more than $350 billion total to date with no end in sight. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the hard truths it brought home about who does and doesn't have access to the American Dream tells us all how desperately these resources are needed in other areas.
The war has already committed us to aiding a generation of veterans and their families and to rebuilding Iraq. We need to meet these just obligations and stop the funding for further destruction so that our resources can be used to strengthen our communities and help those in need.
We need a new course in Iraq. A new Congress offers a new opportunity to bring the troops home, engage in diplomacy within Iraq and with Iraq's neighbors, and fund an Iraqi-led reconstruction effort.
Working solutions for Iraq will be political solutions. Diplomacy and dialogue in close cooperation with the Iraqi government and broad sectors of Iraqi society are the way forward to peace and to rebuilding the U.S.'s strained relationship with the international community.
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The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
