Iowa Group forms Chapter of Veterans for Peace

Ed Flaherty, recently retired from a career in banking, was the catalyst. He contacted VFP members in the state and found the ten required to establish the initial chapter. The hope is that membership will grow and perhaps there will be additional Iowa chapters. What does Veterans for Peace work on? Their evaluation and recommendations of the August 31st withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Iraq is one example. Following is an excerpt:

THE IRAQ DEBACLE:  THE LEGACY OF SEVEN YEARS OF WAR

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, mark the August 31st partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq with the following evaluation and recommendations:
 
The U.S. occupation of Iraq continues and the reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq can at best be called only a re-branded occupation. While the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will be reduced from a high of 165,000, there will still be 50,000 troops left behind, some 75,000 contractors, five huge “enduring bases” and an Embassy the size of Vatican City.

The U.S. military’s overthrow of the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein did not lead to a better life for Iraqis—just the opposite. It resulted in the further destruction of basic infrastructure—electricity, water, sewage—that continues to this day.

Life expectancy for Iraqis fell from 71 years in 1996 to 67 years in 2007 due to the war and destruction of the healthcare system. The U.S. use of weapons such as depleted uranium and white phosphorous has taken a severe toll, with the cancer rate in Fallujah, for example, now worse than that of Hiroshima.

Given the above, we, the undersigned individuals and organizations, mark the occasion of this partial troop withdrawal by calling on the Administration and Congress to take the following actions: