Foreclose the Wars—Not Our Homes!
October will mark 8 years of war and occupation inflicted on Afghanistan and seven years since Congress passed the “Iraq War Resolution” granting the Bush administration authorization to invade Iraq. In addition, October commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Vietnam Moratorium that brought hundreds of thousands into the streets to protest the Vietnam War.
From coast to coast preparations are underway in over 40 cities and localities for anti-war actions on Saturday, October 17 as part of a national day of local and regional protest. Please check the listings on our home page regularly for updates. Each coalition or group planning a protest event on October 17 will set their own demands, slogans, themes, messaging, and activities. If you are planning an action or vigil please contact us at: info@october17.org
The new administration has escalated the war on Afghanistan by sending 21,000 additional troops, bringing the total to over 60,000 with an even greater number of “contractors”. And plans are being made to send thousands of troops more. Instead of leaving Iraq, over 120,000 U.S. troops still remain along with over 100,000 “contractors”. U.S. troops have conducted attacks in Pakistan and increased U.S. Predator drone strikes have already killed over 350 people since President Obama took office. Military spending has increased to $707 billion allocated for 2010.
The administration with the support of Congress is carrying out a protracted counter-insurgency war in which human development aid and negotiations serve only as window dressing on a war policy aimed at dominating Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Central Asia region. “We don’t want their so-called liberation and democracy…. Freedom, democracy and justice cannot be enforced at gunpoint by a foreign country; they are the values that can be achieved only by our people….” – Zoya, foreign committee of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), July 2008. The so called “good war” in Afghanistan/Pakistan is yet another empire building project, the same as in Iraq.
