Though Barack Obama announced the end of combat troops in Iraq -- something necessitated by the opposition we in the antiwar movement are responsible for -- the U.S. remains deeply engaged in occupying Iraq, with combat troops over the border in Kuwait ready to return quickly, and tens of thousands of private contractors in the country. Obama, in fact, wanted to scrap Bush’s 2011 date for withdrawal, provided he could get troops immunity from local prosecution. Reportedly the Iraqi government balked at such immunity because they read a U.S. diplomatic cable via Wikileaks which detailed a 2006 U.S. military killing of ten Iraqi civilians and bombings to destroy the evidence in Ishaqi, Iraq. The war on Iraq was illegitimate, immoral, unjust, and based on lies when George Bush began it, and the continued domination remains so. Someone needs to say: Prosecute the criminals who launched this war of aggression. Afghanistan is now fully Obama’s war, with civilian deaths increasing since he sent more troops and continued the “night raids” that so outrage the population there. As we are meeting more veterans of the war, we sense growing anger at the ongoing crimes against the Afghan people. We are proud to have helped initiate the occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington on October 6, the 10th anniversary of the U.S. bombing and invasion of Afghanistan. Someone needs to say: Ten years is way too long for the richest country to be destroying one of the poorest on the planet.
-- Debra Sweet, "A Relentless Voice Needed Now More Than Ever" (World Can't Wait).