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ILPS Call for Global Days of Action Against the Criminal and Brutal US Occupation of Iraq
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples' Struggle
18 February 2006
The International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) joins all anti-war and anti-imperialist forces throughout the
world in calling for March 18-20, 2006 to be Global Days of Action on the occasion of the third anniversary of the
US-led war of aggression against the people of Iraq.
The reasons that Bush and Blair gave for declaring war on Iraq have been exposed as complete lies. Iraq did not
possess weapons of mass destruction, nor did Saddam Hussein have links with the Al-Qaeda. The real objectives
are clear: US imperialist control of oil and hegemony in the Middle East.
This criminal war of aggression has killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians including women and children.
US high-tech weapons of mass destruction have devastated dams, factories, schools, hospitals, electric power
grids, water facilities and other civilian infrastructure. The people still have no electricity and clean water in
many areas. There is a shortage of petrol in a country that holds the second largest oil reserves in the world.
The economy is in ruins.
But US corporations like Vice-President Dick Cheney's Halliburton are cashing in on the sufferings of the Iraqi
people. They are making a killing from overpriced contracts in building camps for the occupation forces and
for the slow and haphazard reconstruction of the public facilities previously destroyed by US bombs. To top
it all, the corporate vultures are overcharging American taxpayers by overpricing five-fold to twenty-fold goods
and services they deliver to the occupation forces to further increase their profits.
In 2004, the US accounted for 47% of the 1 trillion global military spending. In 2007, George Bush is asking
the US congress to appropriate $560B for the military. That would make US military spending far bigger than
the combined military spending of all the other countries in the planet. At the same time, Bush is pushing for
20% cut in US "development aid" to poor countries - from roughly 1.5 billion dollars to 1.26 billion dollars -- and
similar cuts in disaster assistance and child-survival and health programs.
The US is the leading rogue state and the number one terrorist power. It acts unilaterally and is scornful of
the UN whenever this does not serve US objectives. It violates international conventions as it wishes. Its
hypocritical democratic rhetoric bursts in the face of atrocities against prisoners of war uncovered in Abu
Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere. The US poses the greatest danger to humankind and world peace.
But the US imperialists are being taught a lesson by the Iraqi people. The people's armed resistance is growing
stronger everyday. At the latest official count, 2,264 US soldiers have been killed and 16,653 wounded since
2003. The actual casualties range from 20,000 to 30,000, including all those medically evacuated from Iraq.
The Iraqi people reject the traitorous constitution and government being foisted on them by the occupiers.
No amount of farcical voting for a puppet constitution and for puppet officials can conceal the monstrosity of
US occupation. The imperialists are finding out again as in Vietnam that there are limits to the power even of
the most powerful country possessing the biggest arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in the whole history
of mankind when confronted by the determined resistance of a united people.
Under pressure from their own peoples, the governments of Spain and Norway have withdrawn their forces
from Iraq. Italy and other governments are expected to follow suit. The US is increasingly becoming isolated.
The people of the world support the struggle of the Iraqi people for national self-determination and call for an
end to the illegal and criminal occupation of Iraq. The great majority of the American people now reject their
government's lies and are demanding from Bush an end to the occupation and to bring the troops home now!
The ILPS calls on all its more than 300 participating organizations around the world to mobilize their forces,
undertake preparatory actions and join in the Global Days of Action. We urge you to sign the online Pledge
to participate in the Global Days of Action at http://www. ilps2000.com and indicate the type of actions you
are going to take.###
Issued through the General Secretariat
International League of Peoples' Struggle
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