United Antiwar Movement Tells Obama: No Escalation

United Antiwar Movement Tells Obama: No Escalation!

Letter ties economic pain at home to suffering in Afghanistan Urges widespread, massive protests day after announcement

Washington, DC - On November 30th, representatives of 34 antiwar groups delivered an open letter to President Obama strongly opposing his anticipated decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan with the commitment of tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops.

The document called increased war spending, in light of the ongoing U.S. economic crisis, an “utter folly” and named the war “a war against ordinary people, both here in the United States and in Afghanistan,” which “if continued, will result in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of U.S. troops and untold thousands of Afghans” and “cause other people in other lands to despise the U.S.” as “the world’s richest nation making war on one of the world’s very poorest.”

The signatories pledged “to keep opposing this war in every nonviolent way possible. We will urge elected representatives to cut all funding for war. Some of us will be led to withhold our taxes, practice civil resistance, and promote slowdowns and strikes at schools and workplaces.”

Signed by veterans and peace activists, religious leaders and labor organizers, the document represents one of the most widespread antiwar coalitions in decades, including many of the organizations which, in 2003, brought millions onto the streets to oppose the U.S.-Iraq war.

Signers to the letter are urging their colleagues to participate in local demonstrations the day after an announcement of troop escalations is made.

The letter ends by warning President Obama, “we will do everything in our power, as nonviolent peace activists, to build the kind of massive movement -- which today represents the sentiments of a majority of the American people – that will play a key role in ending U.S. war in Afghanistan. Such is the folly of your decision and such is the depth of our opposition to the death and suffering it will cause.”

ENDS

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