Campus Antiwar Network website
University of MD Student Organize a Week of Action
Monday, 27 March 2006
Three Years of War and Occupation: Three Years Too Long
(March 27, 2006) March 18 marked the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. On that same day in 2003, the U.S. government and its allies actively chose to ignore the massive antiwar demonstrations around the world, including those within Iraq.
Although you wouldn’t know it from reading the pages of The Diamondback, hundreds of this university’s students protested the third anniversary of this brutal war during a number of events organized during the week of March 13. Our Week for Peace was part of a national week of action called by the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN).
Monday started off the week with a silent candlelight vigil to mark the 2,300 soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis who have lost their lives as a result of the invasion.
On Tuesday, Peace Forum organized a CAN-sponsored educational event titled “Voices of Resistance,” featuring prominent antiwar activists Adam Shapiro and Charles Peterson.
The next day, a panel discussion titled “No Scapegoating: Standing Up to Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim Bigotry” was sponsored by the International Socialist Organization, Muslim Students’ Association, Organization of Arab Students and Community Roots.
Finally, the Week for Peace ended with Community Roots’ Jam for Peace, a massive antiwar concert including Head-Roc, Immortal Technique and dozens of students who sang, rhymed, played and spoke out against the injustices facing so many people today.
All these activities were aimed at marking the day three years ago when the Bush administration proceeded with an unlawful invasion that will affect our generation for years to come.
And not only are anti-war protestors condemning the occupation but even US-backed Iraqi officials admit that human welfare, poverty, disease, and unemployment, are all worse now than at pre-war levels.
Even United States-backed Iraqi officials admit human welfare, poverty, disease and unemployment are all worse now than the pre-war levels. These numbers do not even include the daily humiliation in the life of an occupied person: the checkpoints, the midnight raids, the random detentions and profiling — and all for what end? For the weapons of mass destruction that never surfaced? For the so-called democracy that has only brought endless destruction and fear of death?
Perhaps most damning to the U.S. image (besides the brutal torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib) is the recent report issued by Amnesty International. The report found the United States and its allies are holding 14,000 Iraqis in prisons, the majority without any charges or trials.
As quoted in a March 6 article from The New York Times: “Among other methods, victims have been subjected to electric shocks or have been beaten with plastic cable … Iraqi authorities are systematically violating the rights of detainees in breach of guarantees contained both in Iraqi legislation and in international law and standards.”
This abuse explains why 87 percent of Iraqis want the United States out of their country, while 47 percent actually support attacks against U.S. forces. Even for troops that return home safely, life is never the same. According to a survey of more than 222,000 Iraq war veterans in the February issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, more than a third of veterans sought psychological counseling upon returning from Iraq.
More recently, a Zogby International poll found 72 percent of U.S. troops in Iraq support withdrawal within a year, including 29 percent who favored immediate pullout. In addition, a majority of Americans have now rejected the war, with Bush’s approval rating standing at 39 percent.
But this sentiment has not yet translated into a large, visible antiwar movement that unapologetically calls for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The Week for Peace was aimed at being a small contribution to the creation of such a movement.
March 18 signified the day that the United States began an occupation of a people already ravaged by harsh economic sanctions — the first day that antiwar protesters said “No!” to an illegal war that now lacks the support of the majority of military troops, Iraqis, American citizens and the rest of the world, a $300 billion war that began on the basis of a lie.
Article by:
Shane Dillingham2004 Alum, Co-founder, Peace Forum
Rayyan Ghuma Government and Politics, Class of 2009, Treasurer, Peace Forum