Progressive Democrats of America Statement on Iraq
PDA believes the unilateral invasion of Iraq was a cataclysmic mistake and that it will prove to be one of the biggest fiascos in American history.
PDA wants Democratic Party leaders to speak the truth about America's invasion of Iraq.
Here is what PDA believes and what we believe needs be said.
- The invasion was illegal under both the UN Charter and the US Constitution.
- It was unprovoked, unwarranted, unjustified, and unnecessary.
- It is obscenely expensive at a time when non-military government programs are starved for resources.
- It is based on distortions and deceptions and falsehoods -- not by accident, but by design.
- That the costs incurred by the US are borne disproportionately by the poor and underprivileged.
- That it was not motivated by a quest for phantom Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, but by the Bush Administration's determination to control Iraqi oil, to provide vast opportunities for war profiteering by American corporations, and to build 14 new American military bases in Iraq which it intends to keep there for decades to come.
- That the Iraqi people deserve reparations for the harm we have inflicted on their population, their country and their national soul.
- That a way must immediately be found to get the UN in and the US out of Iraq--and to leave behind the possibility of a true Iraqi democracy, with full Iraqi control over their own national resources, the rebuilding of their own country, and with genuine Iraqi self-determination.
- That the Democratic Party should stand enthusiastically behind an American commitment to a strong and vibrant United Nations, which, while far from perfect, is the best vehicle we have at this moment in history to assemble the collective conscience of the human community.
- That our country must commit without exception to abide by the world rule of law. If we disregard the law of nations we're left with the law of the jungle, where the only constraint on violence is the power and ruthlessness of those who would employ it. Rest assured, in that world, we won't be the only ones to employ it.
- That George Bush's foreign policies--of which the Iraq war is the central manifestation--have made us new foreign enemies. That George Bush's defense policies have weakened our defenses. That George Bush's responses to 9/11 have made future 9/11's far more likely to occur. So much for Republicans being "strong on defense."
These are the truths about Iraq we hold as Progressive Democrats of America.
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