Feminist Peace Network

Adapted from Sheroes:
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) has come up with a comprehensive proposal to withdraw our troops from Iraq. Her plan includes the following points:

• Withdraw all U.S. troops and military contractors from Iraq within six months from the date of enactment.
• Accelerate, during the six-month transition, training of a permanent Iraqi police force.
• Prohibit the continued funding, except for the redeployment of troops currently in Iraq, of combat troops to Iraq.
• Prohibit any permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. (Despite official denials, bases are under construction, including one that includes a miniature golf course and a Pizza Hut).
• Authorize, if requested by the Iraqi government, U.S. support for an international stabilization force, which would stay no longer than two years.
• Prohibit U.S. participation in any long-term Iraqi oil production sharing agreements before the enactment by the Iraqi government of new regulations governing the industry.
• Authorize an array of non-military assistance in Iraq, including reconstruction of a public-health system; destruction of land mines, recovery of ancient relics; and distribution of compensatory damages for civilian casualties.
• Honor the sacrifice of our servicemen and women by providing full funding for every health-care treatment, and benefit that they are entitled to under current law.

Co-sponsors of the bill include: Barbara Lee (CA), Maxine Waters (CA), Diane Watson (CA), James McGovern (MA), Barney Frank (MA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Chaka Fattah (PA), Jerrold Nadler (NY), John Conyers Jr. (MI), Wm. Lacy Clay (MO), Steve Cohen (TN), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Bob Filner (CA), Dennis Kucinich (OH), Donald Payne (NJ) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX).Joshua Holland has an excellent blurb about this bill over at Alternet. He writes,

“The sad thing is that neither the AP, nor the New York Times bothered even to report it, and in the Washington Post it merited just a single, off-hand sentence in one of Dana Milbank’s typically snotty little columns. I wonder why that seems so familiar.”

Holland suggests that you write to your representatives and ask them to support the bill. Also, please write to your local media and tell them that this is important legislation and they should be covering the story. And please, forward this blog to your lists. Let’s make some noise about this issue!

Filed under: Uncategorized, Action Alerts, Sheroes