End the Endless Wars: US Troops Out of the Middle East!

595 Harrison Avenue, Boston MA

Description

18 years after President Bush invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, the US remains at war in Afghanistan and Syria. President Biden bombed Syria on February 25. The US continues to support the wars in Yemen and Libya, stations troops in Iraq and Somalia, and is selling arms to its allies Saudi, UAE, and Israel as they prepare to confront Iran. Syria and Iran are heavily sanctioned, including new “Caesar Act” sanctions which are devastating Syria’s civilian economy, and President Biden’s team is moving much too slowly to rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal. Presidents change but the endless wars continue and escalate. Massive military budgets have driven massive inequality in the US. We need to divert those funds to pay for COVID relief, health care, infrastructure and jobs, and to rapidly confront climate change. Candidate Biden said it is time to “end the forever wars”, but President Biden’s response has so far been cautious. Join a day of action March 20 to demand withdrawal of US troops, weapons and bombs from Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and all Middle Eastern countries, and an end to sanctions and threats against Iran and Syria. We demand an immediate military budget cut of at least 25%, and we’ll discuss the Biden administration’s latest moves and our best pressure points. This End the Endless Wars webinar will be accompanied by an online petition, social media toolkit, and local actions. Register to attend! Webinar: Saturday, March 20, 2:30 – 4:00 pm Eastern Speakers: Col. Larry Wilkerson (US Army – Ret.) is distinguished professor of government and public policy at the College of William and Mary and was Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005. Reese Erlich is a print a broadcast journalist who has filed for PRI, CBC (Canada), The Progressive, VICE News, and Foreign Policy, among others. His nationally distributed column “Foreign Correspondent” appears every two weeks in The Progressive. He has authored five books on foreign affairs, most recently The Iran Agenda: The Real Story from Inside Iran and What’s Wrong with US Policy. Kathy Kelly is an American peace activist, pacifist and author, one of the founding members of Voices in the Wilderness, and, until the campaign closed in 2020, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She has frequently visited Afghanistan, Iraq and many other countries affected by U.S. wars and occupations, and has often led nonviolent civil resistance actions. Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at IPS, focusing on Middle East, U.S. wars and UN issues. She co-founded the the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and now serves on the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace. She has written and edited eleven books, including the just-published 7th updated edition of her popular Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Before & After: US Foreign Policy and the War on Terror, and Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the UN Defy U.S. Power. Danny Sjursen is a retired US Army officer, contributing editor at Antiwar.com, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, and director of the Eisenhower Media Network. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at West Point. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge and Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War, and cohosts the podcast Fortress on a Hill. Moderator: Kevin Martin, President, Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund. Kevin’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Village Voice, The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The Progressive, and Z magazine. He has has traveled abroad representing Peace Action and the U.S. peace movement on delegations and at conferences in Russia, Japan, China, Mexico and Britain. Sponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action and Chicago Area Peace Action zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYrceCrrz0sGdQf7DOZ7dHDtJVJJCVuuH9X