GROUP REJECTS BUSH'S BID FOR EXTENDED IRAQ OCCUPATION

[babylonsister]

Bush Urged Not to Lock Successor into Iraq
by Aaron Glantz

SAN FRANCISCO - An arms control group in Washington, DC has begun a petition drive urging Congress to stop President Bush from signing an agreement they say could bind his successor to continue the occupation of Iraq for another five years.


“When the Bush administration launched its attack on Iraq in 2003, it assured the American public that the war would be quick, cheap, and easy,” reads the petition from the Council for a Livable World. “Five years into this disastrous war, both Bush and Iraqi officials are talking about occupying Iraq for another decade — or even longer.

“Withdrawing our military from Iraq, while helping rebuild Iraq and assisting refugees, is the just and honorable solution to an unjust war,” it continues. “We reject the idea of committing the United States to a long-term occupation in Iraq, and ask our elected officials to quickly and safely bring our American troops home.”

So far, more than 3,200 people have signed the petition, which was originally sparked by a deal Bush reached with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that commits the United States to a “long term” relationship with Iraq and lays the groundwork for binding his successor to a permanent relationship with Iraq.

But that agreement isn’t the only target of the petition. The group is also concerned about the positions of most of the Republican candidates for president — chief among them Arizona Senator John McCain.

Earlier this month, McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war and ardent supporter of Bush’s 2007 “surge” in Iraq, was asked at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire whether he supported keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 50 years.

“Make it 100,” McCain responded. “We’ve been in Japan for 60 years, we’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. I hope it would be fine with you if we retain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaeda is training, recruiting, and motivating people.”

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/29/6706/

[Richard Steele]

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