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To: President Obama and Congress

Don't Send U.S. Troops (or more arms) to Iraq

Petition Text

We urge you to commit now to not send U.S. troops or more arms back into Iraq. Our national policy has come full circle in 20 years, from arming Saddam Hussein to illegally attacking, invading, and occupying Iraq, and then back to arming another autocratic Iraqi government.

The way to break out of this vicious cycle is to stop promoting violence. Do not send U.S. troops and more arms back into a disastrous sectarian conflict in support of another ruthless autocrat. Our experience there should have taught us a lesson.

Why is this important?

The Iraqi government is struggling with a devastated nation, in the wake of a war that killed a half a million to a million-and-a-half people, created millions of refugees, destroyed infrastructure, healthcare and education, and left behind environmental contamination that has produced an epidemic of cancer and birth defects.

Using U.S. weapons, the Iraqi government is attacking other Iraqis, under the false belief that eventually this endless cycle of sectarian violence will lead to a stable civil society at peace with its neighbors and itself. What it is producing is more sectarian conflict that is degenerating into a civil war. Caught between the government and private militias are Iraqi citizens who simply want to rebuild their country and lead their lives in peace.

And now U.S. troops and more arms are being sent back into what is quite clearly a civil war. We've been down that road before. We can't bomb Iraq into becoming a stable democratic country.

If Iraqis establish a stable government that fairly represents all Sunnis, Shia, Kurds and Christians, ISIS will become isolated. If they do not, sending fighters, bombers, drones (and eventually troops) will only create another generation of Iraqis who see the U.S. as the enemy.

This petition was posted by U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)

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Updates

2014-05-15 22:57:25 -0400

500 signatures reached

2014-05-15 11:27:20 -0400

100 signatures reached

2014-05-14 15:40:43 -0400

50 signatures reached

2014-05-10 16:46:25 -0400

25 signatures reached

2014-05-10 08:51:00 -0400

10 signatures reached