(The following flyer was distributed at the Antiwar League rally held on Veterans Day, November 11, 2006 in Boston, MA.)

Iraq:

"the most hellish place on Earth"

A recent report in a British medical journal has estimated that 655,000 Iraqis have been killed as a result of the war in Iraq. The report was based on a survey, which was conducted by Iraqi physicians and overseen by scientists at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. This survey, coupled with the daily reports from Baghdad and the rest of the country of the ongoing wholesale slaughter, makes one thing abundantly clear – Iraq is a charnel house, a vast death trap, as a direct result of the invasion and occupation of that country by the United States government and military. Our so-called leaders are creating a legacy of hatred for America that will haunt us for decades to come.

Yet the American "War Party," led by the neocons and President Bush and including virtually all Democratic and Republican political leaders, shows no remorse and calls for us to "stay the course" or make some minor adjustments to tactics. But public support for their insane “war on terror” continues to plummet, and opposition to their interventionist foreign policy is widespread throughout American society. Even American troops, caught in a desperate situation and under the command of a cabal of war criminals and torturers who reside out of harms way in DC, are turning against the war.

What can we do? We must not look to the warmongers to save our country and restore decency to America. We must join together and do it ourselves. We must oppose not just the Iraq War but the whole Orwellian "War on Terror" system, which leads to endless war and torture abroad and fear and loss of freedom at home (see the recent Military Commissions Act which permits torture and assaults the principle of Habeas Corpus that protects us against arbitrary imprisonment).

This is a great emergency that we face, possibly leading to further wars and even nuclear conflict. Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter has written,  in referring to the US military policy of global dominance and nuclear threat, that there is an "infantile insanity ... at the heart of present American political philosophy." Sensible mature Americans from all walks of life must step forward in their neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, cities and towns to challenge this militaristic pathology which threatens to destroy us all. It is time to put the grown-ups back in charge before it is too late. So that Iraq will end, but more importantly so that it will never happen again.

"When this war is over, there will be a reckoning."

The goal of Antiwar League is not to capture the highly centralized warmaking power of the federal government but to dismantle that power. And those found to be responsible for the catastrophe of Iraq must be brought to justice.

The Antiwar League is 100% nonpartisan and maintains a laser-like focus on one issue. THE issue. We are all antiwar all the time. Our goal is to unite peace activists from every corner of the political spectrum behind a concrete program to dissolve the empire and isolate and defeat the War Party.

The Antiwar League won't ask about your political persuasion. We won't ask your opinions on the burning issues of the day. We won't even judge people who mistakenly favored the war at first, but no longer do. All that matters is you agree it's time to "Come Home, America," and that you’re willing to work with others who believe the same thing.

Antiwar League Platform (draft)

1. The "war on terror" is a fantasy war, a totalitarian construct that clearly illustrates that "war is the health of the state." Iraq is not a diversion from the War on Terror. Iraq is the War on Terror.

2. We propose not just to end the Iraq occupation but to bring home all US troops, close foreign military bases and shutdown the War on Terror. The US government must not go abroad in search of enemies.

3. We view the Iraq war as a "crime against peace" and a premeditated war of aggression -- not just a mistake or an act of crazy leaders. Therefore George Bush and his closest advisors must be investigated and, if the evidence demands it, tried for war crimes.

4. The "national security state," and the secrecy which pervades and protects it, must be abolished. Close the CIA, shutdown covert and paramilitary operations, and open the books on the hidden crimes of the empire.

5. The central US government must be stripped of its ability to wage aggressive war. Scrap nuclear weapons and all offensive weapons. Self defense is legitimate. Empire and wars of aggression are not.
 

6. Technology and warfare must be uncoupled. The US government must not use tax dollars to promote the development of new means of warfare and killing in alliance with giant corporations. End the military/industrial/scientific complex forever. For example, close DARPA.
 

7. Military aid to Israel and Egypt, and to all foreign governments, must be canceled.

8. September 11 and the events leading up to it must be fully investigated.

Join the Antiwar League.  Antiwarleague.com.  (617) 331-1491