STOP THE WARS & TORTURE FOR EMPIRE!World Can’t Wait leaflet for March 20 protests: PDF version here
The U.S is occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, and now has more combat troops – 166,000, with 30,000 more on the way – than during the Bush years. President Obama is using drones (pilotless aircraft) on raids into Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, killing hundreds of civilians. All of these attacks are against international law, because none of these countries attacked the U.S.
IRAQ: As U.S. troops switch from “combat” to “permanent occupation,” one million Iraqis are dead, 4 million are refugees. George Bush invaded Iraq seven years ago on the basis of outrageous lies: that Iraq was responsible for 9-11, and had “weapons of mass destruction.” There was never any evidence of either, but over a million people died as Iraqi civil society, schools, sewers, water, and electricity were destroyed by occupation. President Obama still has 98,000 US troops there, though most people voted for him because they thought he would end the war.
AFGHANISTAN: the world’s most powerful military is destroying one of its poorest countries, a horror for civilians. Afghanistan is not any more just than the Iraq war. It’s a war of terror on the people, now being expanded by Obama. During the current and largest US offensive of the war, which is going to spread over the next year, innocent civilians are being killed by U.S./NATO bombs, driven from their homes, and innocent Afghans have been imprisoned and tortured in secret US detention centers.
Is the U.S. there to stop the Taliban and Al Qaeda? The Afghan people say they want the U.S. to leave because its actions – such as killing innocents – drive more people to join the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, and because the U.S. allies with the bullying Northern Alliance warlords.
Is the U.S. there to “save the women” from the Taliban? The Karzai government of Afghanistan, only in power because of U.S. guns, passed a law last year governing the Shi’a population (10-15% of the total) giving men the right to starve their wives if they refuse their husband’s demands for sex. Maternal death rates (from childbirth) are nearly the highest in the world, eight years after the U.S. took over.
VISIBLE PROTEST – marching to stop the crimes of our government – makes a difference because we show what we won’t accept, and we learn what we’re up against. These wars are not legitimate. People around the world must see that we don’t support them, and know that to us, American lives are not more important than their own.
JOIN WORLD CAN’T WAIT SATURDAY, MARCH 20 IN PROTEST!
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