100.000 IRAQI DEATHS ! WORLD WIDE PETITION AGAINST THE ESCALATION !
http://amigaphil.planetinternet.be/BTpetitiontxt.html#English

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STOP THE ESCALATION

"Excluding information from Falluja, a Lancet report of October 29
estimates that 100,000 more Iraqis died than would have been expected
had the invasion not occurred. Eighty-four percent of the deaths were
reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces and 95
percent of those deaths were due to air strikes and artillery."
(Reuters, October 28, 2004)

Far from being over, the war in Iraq has only begun. The United
States do not seem to be able to defeat the Iraqi resistance with the
means they have been using. But neither can they accept their
setbacks. The very arrogance with which the war was declared and
waged has put all their prestige at stake in Iraq and, thereby,
decades of efforts to assure their world domination. The stakes are
even greater than in the Vietnam war. The United States cannot get
out of Iraq unless they leave behind a friendly government, but today
they have so few friends in that part of the world that no democratic
election can produce such a government.

As a result, one must seriously anticipate a military escalation
after the elections -- immediately in case Bush is returned to
office, perhaps more gradually should Kerry win. But the Democratic
candidate has no more intention than Bush of withdrawing from Iraq.
The U.S. government will seek to defeat the resistance by all
possible means. The effort is already underway to demonize the
resistance in world opinion by associating it with abductions and
murders condemned by virtually the whole spectrum of political
organizations in the Arab world.

We demand that the United States face up to reality, unconditionally
withdraw their troops from Iraq, and draw the necessary conclusions
as to the unacceptable nature of preventive war. It is an illusion to
ask that the U.S. forces remain until Iraq is pacified or stabilized,
because their very presence is so hated that it constitutes the main
obstacle to any sort of pacification.

Meanwhile, we affirm that we shall oppose by all peaceful and legal
methods every attempt to crush the Iraqi resistance by a military
escalation such as was attempted during the Vietnam war. We call on
all governments to grant asylum to American military personnel
refusing to serve in Iraq. We shall do our best to spread all
available information to counter the war propaganda, and we shall try
to mobilize world public opinion, as in 2002, to demand that the
United States abandon their efforts to impose a military solution on
Iraq.

http://amigaphil.planetinternet.be/cgi-bin/getfile.cgi?
file=BTpetitionWorld Wide Petition against the Escalation in Iraq
An initiative of the BRussells tribunal endorsed by the World
Tribunal on Iraq