Iraq War Anniversary

News Release
Iraq War Anniversary
March 18, 2009

LORETTA ALPER
Alper is the producer and co-director of "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," a film that documents a pattern of falsehoods disseminated by successive administrations and major media to go to war, as well as a series of rationalizations to keep wars going. The film highlights the Iraq war, but shows similar patterns in conflicts over several decades.

The film features Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, and is narrated by Sean Penn.


ANN WRIGHT
Wright is a 29-year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a colonel and a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the war in Iraq. In December 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She has been to Gaza twice in the last month.

Wright said today: "As we're going into the seventh year of the U.S. war in Iraq and continuing in the midst of the eighth year in Afghanistan -- and as we've seen U.S.-made missiles smash Gaza, there seems to be plenty to be discouraged about.

"Two months into the new administration, there's much to press it about. The longer the U.S. military stays in these places, the more damage is done and the more our national security will be jeopardized."

On Wednesday afternoon Wright will be at a hearing of a Senate subcommittee on military suicides.

On Saturday, she will be participating in a march on the Pentagon against war and occupation. A listing of protests around the U.S. is online.

Wright can also comment on the just-released "Report on Sexual Assault in the Military." She is the co-author of the book Dissent: Voices of Conscience.


For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167


From Opinion: Six years later, Iraq lessons still unheeded by Alexia Gilmore

On March 19, 2003, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the United States launched the Iraq war. Today, six years, hundreds of thousands of military and civilian deaths and $600 billion later, President Barack Obama is telling us the United States is beginning its departure.

But what is waiting in the wings so clearly — so painfully — is the escalation of the Afghanistan/Pakistan crisis. The Obama administration will push this escalation, just as President Bush pushed Iraq. Such is the purview of the party in power. So, let us reflect on Iraq as a prequel to what surely is pending in this next theater of conflict.

Not only has the Iraq war failed to accomplish any meaningful goals when compared to its human and financial costs, it has steeled the resolve of terrorists and other enemies of the United States. In that sense, the war has compromised our security, not protected it.

The public was led down the garden path to justify the Iraq war, as a result of emotion and false information in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Powerful interests and the agendas of government and certain industries also played a central role.


Green Bay soldier who protested against Iraq war expects to face discipline as he rejoins unit

GREEN BAY, Wis. —

A U.S. Army spokesman says the Wisconsin reservist who staged a one-month protest of the Iraq war will be disciplined when he rejoins his unit.

Army Lt. Col. Nathan Banks said Tuesday the commanding officer will decide on the nature of the discipline.

Army Spc. Kristoffer Walker of Green Bay had come home on a two-week leave last month. He refused to go back, saying the war is illegal and immoral.

The 28-year-old changed his mind after the Army threatened repercussions. He says he realized the military has the power to ruin his life.

Walker is scheduled to fly out Wednesday for the unit's remaining four months overseas.

He says he's on friendly terms with his fellow reservists, and he doesn't think there will be reprisals from superior officers.

Information from: Green Bay Press-Gazette, http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com