Green Party Watch

From the Green Party of the United States:

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party candidates and leaders said today that the US must avoid a military confrontation with Iran by diplomacy based on the goal of ridding the Middle East and Asia of nuclear weapons, including Israel, Pakistan, and India.

The Green Party strongly opposes a military attack on Iran, a country that poses no threat to the US. Greens compared the deceptive rhetoric now being used to vilify Iran with the Bush Administration’s fraudulent justifications for a war on Iraq nearly ten years ago, with unconfirmed allegations about Iran’s plans for nuclear arms taking the place of Iraqi WMDs.

On Tuesday, Jan. 24, the Green Party’s presidential contenders will discuss foreign policy and other topics in a live online chat with viewer participation during President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address, to be aired on the Green Party’s Livestream channel (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=471).

Jill Stein, candidate for the Green Party’s 2012 presidential nomination (http://www.jillstein.org): “The threats of an assault on Iran by Israel or the U.S., or both, are igniting tensions that could erupt into a larger conflict. If we object to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the first step in resolving these tensions is to recognize that no nation has a ‘right’ to possess nuclear weapons. The possession of such weapons by any country in the region is a motivation for other countries to obtain them as well, and Iran has unfriendly nuclear nations on either side, being Israel and Pakistan. The United States should press Iran’s neighbors to divest themselves of their nuclear arsenals and to use such pressure as the basis for good-faith negotiation with Iran.” read more »

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders welcomed the news of the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of December, calling the presidential order more than eight years overdue. Greens urged President Obama to let the troops come home to be with their families for the holiday, rather than stationed or redeployed elsewhere.

“We’re glad that President Obama is calling all US military personnel home from Iraq and has ignored Republican demands to prolong the occupation. The President is honoring a binding Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq that President Bush signed. The US must make every effort now to help US troops return to their civilian lives, especially those who’ve been wounded or have suffered psychological trauma because of the war. We owe the troops a great debt and an apology for sending them to fight in a war based on deception and cooked intelligence,” said Carl Romanelli, Pennsylvania Green and member of the party’s International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).

Greens noted that the withdrawal is the result of the Iraqi government’s insistence and that the Obama Administration was initially reluctant to comply with the agreement (http://www.nationaljournal.com/u-s-troop-withdrawal-motivated-by-iraqi-insistence-not-u-s-choice-20111021).

The Green Party opposed the invasion of Iraq since its inception in March 2003 and demanded withdrawal afterwards. Greens blamed both Democrats and Republicans for transferring congressional war powers to the White House in Oct. 2002 despite uncertainty about WMD allegations (later revealed to have been the product of manipulated intelligence), forged evidence of nuclear weaponry, and implausible claims of cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.

Greens participated in protests throughout the US against the Iraq War, and — unlike many Democrats who claimed to oppose the war — continued to protest after President Obama’s election.
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Gene Berkman at Independent Political Report:

Medea Benjamin was The Green Party candidate for U.S. Senator from California in 2000. Challenging Sen. Diane Feinstein’s record of support for bombing Serbia, and her earlier support for Bush Sr’s war in Iraq, Ms Benjamiin received 327,000 votes, over 3% and coming in third.

When all you have is bombs, everything starts to look like a target. And so after years of providing Libya’s dictator with the weapons he’s been using against the people, all the international community – France, Britain and the United States – has to offer the people of Libya is more bombs, this time dropped from the sky rather than delivered in a box to Muammar Gadhafi’s palace.

If the bitter lesson of Iraq and Afghanistan has taught us anything, though, it’s that wars of liberation exact a deadly toll on those they purportedly liberate – and that democracy doesn’t come on the back of a Tomahawk missile.

President Barack Obama announced his latest peace-through-bombs initiative last week — joining ongoing U.S. conflicts and proxy wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia — by declaring he could not “stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people that there will be no mercy, and … where innocent men and women face brutality and death at the hands of their own government.”

read the full commentary, co-authored with Charles Davis @ http://original.antiwar.com/medea-benjamin-davis/2011/03/23/instead-of-bombing-dictators-stop-selling-them-bombs/

Fayetteville, AR – On Friday March 19, 2010 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in front of the Fayetteville Town Center at 15 West Mountain Street, U.S. Senate candidate John Gray will lead a Peace Prayer rally to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Iraq War. There will also be wonderful socially conscious folk music by Still on the Hill, and perhaps others as well. read more »

Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 candidate for president of the United States, has published an article in the UK Independent entitled “Leaders’ lack of respect for rule of law makes us all victims of 9/11″.

The war on terror did not go away with George Bush. When President Barack Obama came to power there was so much hope, but as the US Green Party presidential candidate I did not share it.

I heard candidate Obama’s speeches and knew that he would be a War President. What I did not realise was the extent to which the policies of President Obama would mirror those of his predecessor, including the renewal of the Patriot Act and commission of war crimes. Sadly, President Obama’s Justice Department is now in US courts defending the criminal acts of the Bush administration.

In his State of the Union address to the nation, President Obama defended war, erosion of civil and human rights, creation of the police state, ignoring the US Constitution and the norms of international law, by invoking the tragedy of 11 September, 2001. read more »

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party candidates, leaders, and other members will participate in the ‘US Out of Afghanistan and Iraq Now’ march in Washington, DC, on Saturday, March 20.

Greens will join hundreds of thousands of others to demand an end to the wars and occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Haiti and threats of war against Iran. March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the invasion launched by the Bush-Cheney Administration against Iraq, in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died and tens of thousands of US troops have been killed or been maimed.

For more information on the march, which has been organized by the ANSWER Coalition, visit March20.org (http://www.march20.org). read more »

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders, activists, and members across the US plan to participate in mass rallies, marches, coordinated local and regional demonstrations, and other forms of protest to take place on and around Saturday, October 17 calling for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The National Assembly to End the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars (https://www.natassembly.org/Home_Page.html) is coordinating the nationwide mid-October protests. October 2009 marks the eighth year of the US war in Afghanistan and seven years since Congress passed a resolution authorizing an invasion of Iraq.

Check the list of October 17th anti-war protests for an action near you, make arrangements with fellow Greens to attend, and convince our friends in the peace movement to join the Green Party – the only national peace party. read more »

Legend has it that in A.D. 64 the emperor Nero (A.D. 37 – A.D. 68), last of the Caesars, set fire to Rome to see ‘how Troy would look when it was in flames’ and to serve as a suitable background for a recitation of his poetry while accompanying himself on the lyre.” Recent history in Iraq indicates that the Maliki government is seeking to fiddle while Kurdistan burns.

“TIKRIT, Iraq (AFP) — Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Arabs took to the streets across Iraq Saturday to defend Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against criticism from leaders of the country’s Kurdish minority. Demonstrations were held in the northern Sunni town of Tikrit — the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein — the once-restive Sunni town of Hawijah, and the mostly Shiite southern cities of Karbala, Najaf, Nasiriyah, Samawah, and Hilla, AFP correspondents said.”

There is a rising tide of actions by both the government in Baghdad and the sectarian militias and political parties to provoke conflict so they can prevent the implementation of Article 140. “Kurdish Parliamentary President Adnan Mufti led the session [of the Kurdish Parliament] to discuss bringing regional armed groups into line with the Iraqi army as well as power-sharing arrangements with the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central government in Baghdad. On the topic of the Peshmerga, the Kurdish militia, Parliament noted the force is the legitimate protector of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to the state constitution.” It is vital for Kurds in the Diaspora and in the region to present the Kurdish issue to governments that have disregarded it far too frequently in their policies.
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Press release from GPUS:

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders said today that antiwar voters will not get an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by voting for presumed Democratic nominee Barack Obama on Election Day.

Green leaders urged Americans who oppose the wars started by the Bush Administration with bipartisan support in Congress to vote instead for Green nominee Cynthia McKinney, running mate Rosa Clemente, and Green congressional candidates.

“Millions of voters plan to vote for Barack Obama in the hope that he’ll bring peace to Iraq and other nations in the region,” said Omar N. López, Green candidate for the US House in Illinois (4th District). “But his positions are really ‘McCain-Lite’ — he’ll continue many of the same belligerent foreign policies as the Bush-Cheney Administration that John McCain would. Mr. Obama supports a larger military in terms of both spending and personnel. We want to stop the US from being the world’s bully, and instead fund a peace dividend to deal with the economic, energy, and global warming crises.”

“We appeal to voters to take a look at the Green Party’s ‘Peace Slate’ of candidates, with Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente on the Green presidential ticket. A vote for a candidate who doesn’t represent your own ideals is a vote wasted,” said Mr. López.
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Press release:

Warrenville, IL – Steve Alesch, Green Party Candidate for Congress (IL 13), announced today his opposition to a plan pushed by the Bush Administration to keep U.S. forces in Iraq well into the future, undermining Iraq’s sovereignty and indefinitely hindering its ability to rebuild its own political system.

“When George Bush ran for president in 2000, he derided an interventionist foreign policy he called ‘nation building’,” said Alesch, who is running against Rep. Judy Biggert (R), an ardent Bush supporter. “What he is proposing now, however, not only ensures we’ll continue nation building in Iraq through his term, but for many future presidential terms.”

Details of the secret U.S.-Iraqi Compact have come to light over the last week in reports by the London Independent, McClatchy Newspapers, Washington Post, and DemocracyNow.

Read it all here.