WHAT DO IRAQIS THINK? SIMPLE WAYS TO HELP SUPPORT BY THE NUMBERS: PEACE AND IN

On the occupation and its effects: (and here at home): VOICES RARELY

 In March 2007, 69 percent of Iraqis thought the US  Write to your local newspaper and elected representatives, presence was creating more violence than it was pre- telling them to support the three-point platform of Iraq HEARD: venting. A year later, 61 percent said the US presence Veterans Against the War: 1) a full, immediate US with- was still “making security worse” with another 11 per- drawal from Iraq, 2) full benefits for all military veterans, Iraqi Civilians and cent saying it was “having no effect.” and 3) material reparations for the people of Iraq. While  By August 2007, 57 percent—including 93 percent of Activists on the US you’re at it, tell them why the federal budget must be over- Sunnis—approved of attacks on US forces. hauled to spend less on the military and more on people’s  As of March 2008, 65 percent of Iraqis wanted the US Occupation needs—health care, education, jobs, etc. to leave “immediately or as soon as possible.” Another  Organize an educational forum on Iraq in your town, 13 percent wanted the US to leave “within six months.” school, church, or union.

But didn’t the “surge” make things better?  Boycott corporations that profit from the war such as oil giants ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and Chevron.  In August 2007, 70 percent of Iraqis “believe[d] secu-  Encourage young people to pursue alternatives to military rity has deteriorated in the area covered by the US mili- enlistment. For links to resources, visit tary ‘surge.’” 67-70 percent also “believe[d] the surge www.projectyano.org, www.famedetroit.org, or has hampered conditions for political dialogue, recon- www.militaryfreeschools.org. struction and economic development.”  Get involved in (or start) a community group that opposes  In March 2008, around half of Iraqis said that the in- creased US presence had made security worse; between war and militarism. Groups active in the NYC area include: 10 and 21 percent said it had “had no effect.”  Brooklyn For Peace, www.brooklynpeace.org  Campus Antiwar Network, www.campusantiwar.net What will happen when the US withdraws?  Code Pink, www.codepink4peace.org

 Consumers For Peace, consumersforpeace.org  In early 2006, around two-thirds of respondents agreed Above photos from www.dahr.org that “‘day to day security for ordinary Iraqis’ would  Iraq Veterans Against the War, www.ivaw.org increase,” that “violent attacks would decrease,” and  Students for a Democratic Society, that “the amount of interethnic violence will decrease” http://studentsforademocraticsociety.org if the US withdrew by summer 2006. The figures have  US Labor Against the War, www.uslaboragainstwar.org remained similar in more recent polls.  War Resisters League, http://warresisters.org  Iraqis favor national unity, a secular state, and national  Raise money for humanitarian and secular political organi- control over oil. The prospects for achieving these goals zations working in Iraq: will greatly increase once the US leaves.  Iraqi Red Crescent, www.iraqredcrescent.org ————–——–  Muslim Peacemakers Team, www.leftspot.com/jess Polls, interviews, and other sources used  Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, www.equalityiniraq.com in this pamphlet: Sara Burke, et al., “‘We are the Hope’: Voices from the Secular www.uuiraq.org Resistance Movement in Iraq,” Peacework, 20 Dec. 2006; Wesleyan University's Students for Ending the War in  Iraq Freedom Congress, www.ifcongress.org Iraq (SEWI), No Reason to Stay: The Case for Immediate Withdrawal from Iraq (May 2007), www.wesleyan.edu/  Union of the Unemployed in Iraq, www.uuiraq.org wsa/sewi/ourposition.html; Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily, “No Safety for Women in Iraq,” Alternet, 15 Dec. 2006; Bill Weinberg, Iraq’s Civil Resistance Speaks: Interviews with the Secular Left Opposition, Pamphlet #26  Read, support, and promote independent media outlets Compiled by the (Ithaca, NY: Autumn Leaves, 2005); Dahr Jamail, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded like electroniciraq.net, linktv.org/mosaic, zmag.org, Journalist in Occupied Iraq (Haymarket, 2007); “Iraq Poll September 2007” (poll commissioned by ABC, BBC, counterpunch.org, juancole.com, democracynow.org, Social Justice Alliance and NHK news agencies); “Iraq Poll March 2008,” (ABC/ARD/BBC/NHK); Opinion Research Business, “Public Attitudes in Iraq: Four Year Anniversary of Invasion,” Mar. 2007, and Mar. 2008 version; “Iraq: Where Things dahrjamailiraq.com, alternet.org, and tomdispatch.com. Stony Brook University Stand” (ABC/ARD/BBC/USA Today), 19 Mar. 2007; Program on International Policy Attitudes, “What the Iraqi  For more ideas and resources, visit www.sbusja.com. www.sbusja.com Public Wants,” 31 Jan. 2006. [Most of the above can be found online; URLs have been omitted to conserve space.] This pamphlet was compiled in September 2008.

“This little boy and girl, their father was shot by the Americans. Who will take care of this family? Who will “I was taken by Americans for three days recently. They “Five years of invasion, war and watch over these children? told me they would rape me if I didn't tell them where Who will feed them now? my husband was, but I really didn’t know…[When my occupation have brought nothing Who? Why did they kill husband was arrested], they told him they would rape but death, destruction, misery and my brother? What is the me right in front of him if he did not confess he was a reason? Nobody told me. suffering to our people. In the name of

He was a truck driver. terrorist. They forced me to watch them beat him hard our ‘liberation,’ the invaders have destroyed our na- What is his crime? Why until he told them what they wanted to hear.” tion’s infrastructure, bombed our neighborhoods, bro- did they shoot him? They —Um Ahmed, Iraqi woman from Baghdad, 2006 ken into our homes, traumatized our children, as- shot him with 150 bullets! saulted and arrested many of our family members and Did they kill him just be- neighbors, permitted the looting of our national treas- cause they wanted to shoot Over 1.2 million Iraqis have “Women in Iraq used to go to work, participate in social ures, and turned nearly twenty percent of our people a man? That’s it? This is died since the US invaded in activities and even take the reason? Why didn’t 2003, with countless more into refugees. The invaders helped to foment and then part in politics. Iraqi exploit sectarian divisions and terror attacks where anyone talk to me and tell injured or maimed women studied and me why they have killed worked side by side there had been none. Our union offices have been my brother? Is killing people a normal thing now, happen- with men, and they raided. Union property has been seized and de- ing every day? This is our future? This is the future that formed at least 35 per- stroyed. Our bank accounts have been frozen. Our the promised Iraq?” cent of the national leaders have been beaten, arrested, abducted and as- —Anonymous man from Samarra, 2003 working power in vari- sassinated. Our rights as workers have been routinely

www.uuiraq.org ous fields of work until violated. The Ba’athist the U.S. occupation legislation of 1987, which www.iraqitradeunions.org/archives/cat_students.html “[The US and Europe] are not here to Iraq’s 2005 Constitution lists Islamic Sharia came. The occupation banned trade unions in the bring anything like democracy or free- law as “a fundamental source” of legisla- tion, and explicitly restricts women’s has brought nothing public sector and public dom...it has all been lies. The Americans ability to inherit money and to file for but suffering, death or don’t give a damn about democracy or divorce as well as other basic rights. kidnapping to women enterprises (80% of all human rights. They are worse than even “Honor killings” of women have also sky- here now.” workers), is still in effect, rocketed under the US occupation, with enforced by Paul Saddam.” their perpetrators enjoying complete —Iraqi sociologist Bremer’s post-invasion —Maki al-Nazal, impunity in most cases. Shatha al-Dulaimy, Occupation Authority and manager of health 2006 Most Iraqi workers are still then by all subsequent prohibited from unionizing by a

clinic in Fallujah, 2004 Saddam-era law that the occupa- www.worldproutassembly.org Iraqi administrations. tion forces have kept in place. “This occupation brought all the forces of We demand an immedi- political Islam back. They opened the door ate withdrawal of all foreign troops from our country, “Although the dictator- for all the kinds of political Islam, from and utterly reject the agreement being negotiated with ship of Saddam Hussein Saudi Arabia, from , from Iran— the USA for long-term bases and a military presence.

was bloody tyranny, they are sending weapons and money. If The continued occupation fuels the violence in Iraq women were better off the occupation forces leave, the people of rather than alleviating it. Iraq must be returned to full US-led sanctions on Iraq than now, much better Iraq can decide what they want to do. But sovereignty.” killed at least 500,000 Iraqi right now they have no choice, the choice is children in the 1990s ac- off.” cording to the UN. In addi- —Yanar Mohammed, in the US forces’ hands.” —from the “May Day 2008 Statement tion to violence, starvation women’s rights activist, —Samir Noory, workers’ rights activist, 2004 from the Iraqi Labor Movement To the and disease are constant 2004 threats under the US occu- Workers and All Peace Loving People pation: a recent report by “I will stop fighting when the last American of the World” (full text available at Save the Children estimated www.basraoilunion.org) that 122,000 Iraqi children soldier leaves Iraq.” died in the year 2005 alone. —“Ahmed,” Iraqi resistance fighter, 2004