Strength Through
Peace endorses HR 508 without qualification, as the most thoughtful
and comprehensive piece of legislation yet to appear. It requires
all U.S. Armed Forces to be out within six months, provides for the
reconstruction of the country, and establishes a “Joint Select
Committee to Review the Origins and Conduct of Operation Iraqi
Freedom.”
A concise
summary follows. A more detailed summary may be found
here. The text may be found
here.
We hope and trust there will be further appropriations to fulfill
our nation’s obligation to provide for the reconstruction of that
nation which we’ve done so much to destroy.
Part I deals
with US military disengagement from Iraq.
* The
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of
2002 is repealed.
* Not later than
six months from the date of enactment:
(a) all US Armed
Forces must be withdrawn;
(b) all security
forces under contract with the US government must be withdrawn;
(c) and no funds
for continued deployment but only for a safe and orderly
withdrawal.
* Permanent
military bases are prohibited:
(a) no
construction of bases designed to be occupied by US forces after our
withdrawal;
(b) all right
and title to existing facilities will be transferred to the Iraqi
government.
* For the
allowed six-month period, US forces may assist in the training of:
(a) an Iraqi
police force;
(b)
neighborhood, village, and tribal home guards comprised of Iraqi
citizens.
* If the Iraqi
government requests,
(a) we will
support an “international stabilization force”
(b) recommended
to begin before the six-month withdrawal date and end two years
after that.
* The total
number of US embassy personnel is limited to 500 persons.
* Section 109
(a) prohibits US
nationals from entering into contracts for the production or
marketing of oil
(b) unless and
until the Government of Iraq has laws to regulate the activities of
foreign nationals pursuant to such contracts.
Part II deals
with US assistance in reconciliation and reconstruction in Iraq.
* A study on the
damage to Iraqi society and infrastructure ($100 million)
* An Iraqi
reconstruction corps to rebuild infrastructure ($500 million)
* A clean-up of
land-mines, unexploded ordinance, and depleted uranium ($250
million)
* Assistance in
dismantling fortifications (recommend for Iraqi citizens, Iraqi
administration: $500 million)
* Assistance to
recover and restore ancient relics and archeological sites (Iraqi
citizens: $250 million)
* Compensation
for Iraqi noncombatant civilian casualties ($200 million)
(a) excludes
anyone who participated in the armed insurgency after May 1, 2003;
(b) requires
adequate notice to Iraqis;
(c) payments of
$10,000 or less as determined;
(d) statute of
limitations is two years from publication of notice.
* Assistance in
establishing an Iraqi institute of peace (non-violent resolution:
$25 million for FY 2008)
* An
international fund to redevelop civic institutions (bring back
doctors, educators, jurists, etc.: $1 billion)
* An
international fund to reconstitute the public health system ($1.7
billion)
Part III
provides for U.S. veterans’ programs:
(a) budget for
FY 2008 will be 130% of FY 2006;
(b) thereafter
based on number of veterans and indexed to Consumer Price Index;
(c) these funds
are not for construction.
Part IV
establishes a “Joint Select Committee to Review the Origins and
Conduct of Operation Iraqi Freedom”.
(a) nine members
from each chamber, appointed by majority leader in consultation with
minority leader;
(b) authorized
to hold hearings and issue subpoenas;
(c) final
report, with recommendations for legislation, by December 31, 2008.
STP Position on
the
Reid-Feingold
Senate Resolution
Strength Through
Peace supports the Reid-Feingold Senate resolution to change the
mission in Iraq to the safe, phased redeployment of our forces out
of Iraq, with March 31, 2008, as the date after which no funds may
be expended for further deployment – with the following
qualification. STP strongly opposes the stated exceptions which
would leave unlimited numbers of troops to train and equip Iraqi
security services (the Salvador option) and to continue “targeted”
US military operations against “terrorist organizations” in Iraq.
Such a presence would continue to escalate the violence in Iraq.
The text of the resolution can be found
here.
STRENGTH THROUGH PEACE OFFERS
5-POINT PLAN FOR ENDING THE WAR IN IRAQ
Posted September 21, 2005
1) STP
calls for Congress immediately to bring to the floor, debate, and to pass HR
3142 which declares: “It is the policy of the United States not
to maintain a long-term or permanent military presence in Iraq.” It
should be made explicit in the debate that we are not attempting to control
Iraq’s oil supply, and that we do intend to withdraw all military forces,
advisors, and contractors and to relinquish all military bases in Iraq. The purpose of
this declaration is two-fold.
First, it is
important to distinguish between two components to the insurgency in Iraq.
There are a small number of international jihadists led by al-Qaeda who are
resolutely opposed to democracy or any kind of Westernizing of traditional
Islamic society. And there are a large number of Iraqi nationalists who are
opposed to the US occupation of their land. With a clear and convincing
statement of our intention to withdraw, we can split the insurgency. When they
decide we do not intend to maintain the occupation with a puppet government in
Baghdad, the Iraqi nationalists will be freed to join in support of the central
government and the democratic self-determination of the Iraqi people. Violence
will continue from the international jihad opposing democracy, but this is a
much smaller group which is not likely to retain the continued support of the
majority of the Iraqi people.
The second
advantage of this declaration by Congress is that it will produce an honest
discussion of the course of American policy in Iraq. The Bush Administration
has put us on the course of global domination by military force. It is part of
their plan to maintain permanent military bases in the Middle East. To fulfill
their plan, they have trampled upon the sovereignty of nations, the structure of
international justice, and the regimen of war-crimes legislation that has
governed since the Nuremberg trials. When the President says we must “stay the
course,” this is what he is referring to. The American people need the
opportunity to assess this option critically. To “complete the mission,” in the
sense of maintaining military forces in Iraq until the insurgency has been
quelled, would require by knowledgeable estimate 380,000 troops or more. And
that troop level would likely require a draft. When the American people have
had an opportunity to consider the matter in public debate, STP believes we are
not likely to continue on the Bush Administration’s course of world domination
by military force.
HR 3142, which
will serve to bring this question to debate, has been introduced into Congress
with 13 cosponsors, after a proposal developed by the Friends’ Committee on
National Legislation. It is presently languishing in the House Armed Services
and International Relations Committees. STP urges all voters to call on their
Congressional representative to bring HR 3142 to the floor for debate.
2) Immediately
upon passage of HR 3142 or similar legislation, Strength Through Peace calls
for the President to direct all US military forces to cease offensive operations
and to turn all matters of local security over to regional or sectarian militias
or other local security forces. This change is already well underway.
There are signs of Sunni tribal militias fighting against foreign jihadists even
for the protection of Shiite citizens in their towns. There are signs that
large numbers Sunnis are registering to vote in the upcoming referendum, in
order to defeat the constitution written in Baghdad under the US occupation.
Sunni religious and civil leaders have called for US forces not to appear
anywhere around the polling places. The Iraqis are capable of providing for
their own security in all parts of the country.
It is the US
presence which is provoking the insurgency and the violence it wreaks upon Iraqi
citizens. And the largest cause of violent death in Iraq is US military action
and US bombing in particular. STP calls upon the US military to cease offensive
operations particularly in the Sunni western province, where we have been
surrounding entire cities and applying unlimited amounts of firepower to kill
apparent “insurgents” along with unfortunate civilians – a campaign steeped in
war crimes by long-accepted international standards. A scientific projection in
October 2004 indicated that 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the American
invasion. The number is surely much higher a year later. These deaths are in
addition to the nearly 2000 American military deaths, along with the maimed and
injured and psychologically damaged.
Until our
military halts offensive operations and withdraws to defensive positions, our
brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, will continue to be exposed to the
slaughterways in Iraq.
3) Immediately
upon passage of HR 3142 or similar legislation, STP calls for the President
to direct the State Department to request the assistance of the UN and to issue
invitations and convene an international conference for the purpose of promoting
peace and security in Iraq. The members of this conference should be
Islamic nations primarily – drawn from the Arab League or the larger
Organization of the Islamic Conference. The latter is not to be confused with
the organization here proposed, which could be named the International
Conference for Peace in Iraq. One possible candidate for its leader might be
King Abdullah of Jordan.
The proposed Conference would have three distinct purposes or tasks to perform.
Its immediate purpose would be to monitor the referendum on the constitution and
future elections in Iraq. Sunni officials may have requested the US to stay
away from polling places also because the US has an interest in suppressing
opposition to the constitution. During the election for the transitional
Assembly, the US enforced an outright ban upon candidates calling for the
withdrawal of US forces. Membership in this International Conference for Peace
in Iraq should therefore include respected international election observers,
although personnel on the ground should be from the predominately Muslim nations
as much as possible.
A more
important task for this Conference would be to provide the Iraqi government with
whatever security assistance it might request, and therefore it should include
in its membership representatives of the UN and perhaps of NATO. The UN might
be called upon to provide blue helmets for peacekeeping purposes, but again
these would have to stand in assistance to the primary peacekeeping forces on
the ground, who should be Muslim. The offer of NATO to provide training for
Iraqi government forces outside the country should be considered, and special
attention should be given to training in respect for human rights.
The most
important purpose of this International Conference for Peace in Iraq would be to
assist in negotiating the conditions for a lasting peace among the various
factions in Iraq. The mainstay members of the Conference would have to be from
its neighboring countries, who must negotiate their own common interest in the
peace and unity of Iraq. Iran relates in one way to the fundamentalist Shiites
in the south, Turkey relates in another way to the Kurds in the north, while
Saudi Arabia has its profoundly ambivalent relation to al-Qaeda and radical
Sunni fundamentalists in the west. Prominent in the negotiation will have to be
the major factions in Iraq who have been opposing the US occupation, but also
the legitimate interest of the United States in being secure against assaults
upon its citizens and upon its homeland. Iraqi secular interests will have to
be considered as well – its labor unions and its tradition of women’s rights.
All of these interests must be united in their common value of peace.
The aim of
this International Conference will be to empower the Iraqi parties and their
Islamic neighbors to find their own peace in that nation, and jointly this
Conference will assume responsibility for the peace as the American forces
withdraw.
4) Immediately upon passage of
HR 3142 or similar legislation, STP calls for Congress also to bring to the
floor and to pass the substance of Senator John McCain’s SA 1556 (presently an
amendment to the military appropriation), which provides that “No individual
in the custody … of the United States Government … shall be subject to cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.” Like HR 3142, debate
and passage of this legislation would have a two-fold value.
One value would be to give the
American people an opportunity to define their own character and identity. In
preparing its “war on terror,” the Bush Administration advanced an
interpretation of the Geneva Conventions which excluded from their protections
any affiliate of al-Qaeda. And it interpreted the UN Convention Against Torture
and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment in such a way that “torture” was very
narrowly defined and “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” was permitted with
foreigners. The results have been horrifying and have been widely publicized.
The United States should be a world leader in the realm of human rights. When
Senator McCain was asked whether terrorists should be treated as POWs, he
replied, “This is not about terrorists. This is about who we are.”
The second great effect of our
turning away from the course which the Administration has charted for us would
be in the international and particularly the Islamic world. After our invasion
of Iraq, the single greatest recruiting vehicle for al-Qaeda has been our
treatment of prisoners of war. It is only as we are perceived to have turned
away from such policies that we will cease generating that opposition. More
importantly, if we return to our former role as a leader in human rights, we
will be shifting the paradigm of our support for such nations as Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, and Pakistan. The struggle of al-Qaeda is in the first place against
those ruling classes who grew rich by allying themselves with Western powers and
suppressing the call of their people for an Islamic sense of justice. We will
not know peace in our war in the Middle East until our client states have found
the internal peace of true social justice. We will not know peace until a
vision of social justice reigns in our own unhappy and increasingly hard-hearted
nation.
5) And
finally, but still immediately upon passage of HR 3142 or similar legislation,
STP calls for the President to direct the Pentagon to produce a plan for the
announced withdrawal within 30 days, to initiate that plan not later than
December 31, 2005, and to complete the withdrawal within a matter of months and
by August 31, 2006 at the latest, abandoning all military bases and removing
from Iraq all military forces, advisors, and contractors. The withdrawal
is to be initiated whether or not a constitution has been agreed upon. Indeed
it might be best for the Iraqi people to renegotiate their constitution without
a heavy-handed US presence. The withdrawal must be completed in this time frame
to make honest the policy declaration of HR 3142. Military advisors and
civilian military contractors, all must be withdrawn before the central
government will be perceived as anything but a puppet of the United States. The
maintenance of an American embassy in Iraq, and its security detail, will be a
matter for negotiation with the Iraqi government. But that embassy is now the
world’s largest, and it would have to be scaled back to normal size. All of
this is required to restore to the Iraqi nation its rightful sovereignty.
These five
steps can all be taken now. As soon as we have decided that we are not
willing to sustain the human costs of a permanent military presence in Iraq, we
can without delay cease offensive military operations, call for an international
conference especially of Islamic nations to secure the peace, pass legislation
restoring our traditional championship of human rights, and initiate the process
of an expeditious withdrawal from Iraq.
But the
journey to peace will not be completed even with the five steps above.
Strength Through Peace calls on this nation to strike out boldly upon a course
of reducing our dependence upon foreign oil. We need not be concerned for
our access to Iraq’s oil supply. The laws of supply and demand in the world
market will assure our share. But in the best of scenarios the world is facing
a decline in the supply of fossil fuels. We must start now in rapidly
developing alternative energy sources, including efficiency and a mix of wind,
solar, hydrogen, small scale hydropower, biofuels, and clean coal technologies,
technologies that will allow for our society’s survival in the very different
world that is fast approaching. We’ve poured $200 billion into the unfortunate
military adventure in Iraq. Investing a comparable sum in a future of energy
independence is the course of wisdom.
Furthermore,
STP calls on this nation to recognize its moral obligation to provide just
compensation for war damages in Iraq. Given the scale of the nation and the
magnitude of the damages a figure comparable to the cost of the war would be a
very scant minimum. These reconstruction funds should be administered by the
government of Iraq as it sees best, provided that there be transparency of
accounting and that this be overseen by the proposed Conference for the purpose
of peace in Iraq. The Conference should seek the expertise of professionals
from the UN, and provide its accountants a blanket authorization to pursue and
publish information as they see necessary.
Finally,
STP calls for criminal proceedings against all persons who may have been
complicit in war crimes or other violations of law. The only appropriate
response to the course of militarism upon which the Bush Administration launched
this country should be “Never again.”
