A Plea for Peace

On Election Day 2006, the American public rejected the President's disastrous strategy in Iraq. On January 27, Columbia activists will ensure that those voices are heard loud and clear.

The unethical and misguided war in which the United States finds itself entrenched was created and is maintained under false pretenses. It is a war that has claimed the lives of over 3,000 U.S. servicemen and women as well as, according to a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers, 600,000 Iraqi lives. On January 10, President Bush adopted the McCain doctrine for the escalation of the Iraq War. He proposed pouring 20,000 more troops into a failing war. This goes against even the recommendations of his own generals on the ground, advice that he has previously promised to follow, and of the Iraq Study Group. While we've grown accustomed to the President's disregard for the will of the American people, this marks a new low in obstinacy.

The current justifications for the continued occupation are no better than the lies about al-Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction that launched the invasion. The occupation has created the conditions for civil war and the continued presence of U.S. forces prevents a political solution, which is the only viable method of ending the civil war. Genuine democracy cannot be established by brute force.

The president is willfully pursuing a course that already failed once. Months ago, the military tried and failed to quell the violence in Baghdad with additional troops. More of the same is not enough. More of the same is making Iraq our generation's Vietnam. It is not acceptable for members of Congress to seek comfortable political ground in this debate at the expense of American and Iraqi lives. The time is now for Americans to stand up and demand that our elected officials stop the escalation and put an end to the war.

The Columbia College Democrats, the CU Working Families Party, the International Socialist Organization, Students for Justice in the Middle East, and other Columbia activists are joining the United for Peace and Justice protest in Washington in order to bring this issue to the policy makers' doorstep. On January 27, we will join activists from around the country in expressing our staunch support for the withdrawal of American troops from the disastrous war in Iraq which cannot be won.