Greens and Other Antiwar Americans Were Right on Iraq

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Monday, March 13, 2006

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org 
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@greens.org 

Prowar Republicans and Democrats were wrong

• Evidence of deceit and impending disaster existed before Bush invaded Iraq; "Being right doesn't make us proud, it makes us angry" say Greens.

• Events are planned to mark the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party candidates and leaders marked the beginning of the fourth year of the Iraq War with a reminder that Greens and millions of other Americans who opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq were right from the very beginning.

"All those Republican and Democratic White House officials and leaders in Congress and their apologists in the media who supported the invasion of Iraq were dead wrong, and many were complicit in the prowar lies," said Jeff Kravitz, Green candidate for U.S. Representative in California's 5th District (Sacramento) <http://www.kravitzforcongress.org>."Some of them -- especially warhawk Democrats like Senators Clinton [NY], Kerry [Mass.], and Biden [Del.] -- are still wrong."

Greens, led by the party's Peace Action Committee (GPAX) <http://www.gp.org/committees/peace>, will mark the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in numerous events planned for the weekend of March 18.  GPAX has endorsed the Troops Out Now call for March 18 and 19 and International Days of Action Against the War, with protests at military recruiting stations throughout the U.S. The North Carolina Green Party is co-sponsoring the Third Rally and March in Fayetteville, near Ft. Bragg (contact: Elena Everett, <greentararaider@yahoo.com>).

GPAX and the state Green Parties of North Carolina, Michigan, Florida, and Oklahoma have endorsed the Gulf Coast Vet and Katrina Survivor March <http://www.vetgulfmarch.org>, which begins Tuesday, March 14, and ends Sunday with an Antiwar-Gulf solidarity rally in New Orleans.

Last week, Greens called for the release of Cindy Sheehan, Green Party member Medea Benjamin, and other antiwar protesters who had been arrested in New York on March 6 for demanding immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops, which the Green Party supports. The party has also called for no permanent military bases left behind in Iraq, an end to torture and other illegal treatment of prisoners, a halt to domestic attacks on civil liberties, and steps to break the U.S. addiction to oil, and has consistently opposed the war on Iraq since President Bush first threatened an invasion:

• Greens warned in late 2002 and early 2003 that the Bush Administration was lying to American citizens and to the world when it claimed that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs, that he has conspired with al-Qaeda, that Iraq had connections with the 9/11 attacks, and that Saddam had sought nuclear weapons materials from Africa.
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_09_27_02.html
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_10_25_02.html 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_01_19_03.html 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_02_10_03.html 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_02_13_03.html 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_02_14_03.html 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_03_20_03.html 
  http://www.gp.org/impeachbush/ 
  "Evidence already existed that President Bush lied about our reasons for invading Iraq when he delivered his January, 2003, State of the Union speech," said Rae Vogeler, Wisconsin Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate <http://www.VoteRae.org>. "The Downing Street memo confirmed that intelligence was 'fixed' to support the war."

• Greens warned in March, 2003, that U.S. forces would use illegal weapons materials, including depleted uranium and cluster bombs; that the Bush Administration was already violating the law in the treatment of prisoners; and that contractors like Halliburton were poised to profiteer from the invasion.
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_03_20_03.html 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_05_12_03.html

• Greens have warned repeatedly that an invasion of Iraq would inflame Muslim anger against the U.S., strengthening al-Qaeda and making the world less secure.
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_03_20_03.html
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_01_20_04.html
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_07_08.shtml
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_09_19.shtml

• In July, 2003, the Green Party of the United States called for the impeachment of President Bush for deceiving the American people and for violation the U.S. Constitution, and for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
  http://www.gp.org/impeachbush/ 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_07_21_03.html

• Calling for immediate withdrawal, Greens warned repeatedly in 2005 that continued occupation might lead to civil war in Iraq.
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_02_02.html 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_09_19.shtml 
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_10_26b.shtml

"The thousands of Americans, including Greens, who protested in the streets in early 2003 were right," said Michael Berg, Delaware Green candidate for U.S. Representative <http://www.bergforcongress.us>, who was thrust into the role of prominent spokesperson for the peace movement when his son Nick was abducted and killed on May 7, 2004 in retaliation for the torture of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison. "We need to hold public officials who got us into the Iraq war accountable. Being right doesn't make us proud, it makes us angry and sorrowful for the needless deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, the more than 2,300 U.S. service members, and the hundreds of civilian contractors."


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org 
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Green Party rebuttal to President Bush's 2006 State of the Union Address (Video News Release)
http://www.gp.org/video/2006stateofunion/