On June 30 hundreds gathered in Minneapolis to oppose the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

We call on the readers of Fight Back! to vote with your feet and mobilize for the big anti-war marches of the September 24th National Coalition in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco. Fight Back! will be there, joining students, oppressed nationality activists, war veterans, union members and anti-war organizers from across the U.S. demanding that Bush, “Bring the troops home now!”

Since Bush Jr.’s Iraq war began, over 100,000 Iraqis, many of them children, have paid with their lives. Nearly 2000 U.S. soldiers are dead and 12,000 more seriously wounded. Recent revelations show these numbers are manipulated and undercounted. The U.S. has no respect for the dead. Polls show that 60% or more of the American people are opposed to the Iraq occupation. Polls also show Americans feel less safe because of the Iraq war. Fear is a mainstay of Bush’s America; however fear has turned to anger as Americans realize they have been lied to. Anger can be powerful, and angry Americans are joining the rest of the world in demanding an end to the occupation of Iraq and that the U.S. bring the troops home.

Bush talks of “war without end,” and Rumsfeld has said it will take twelve more years before the U.S. withdraws. Even the U.S. ruling class understands that the war is going badly for them. So in Congress, cracks are appearing and there is trouble for Bush. Republican Representative Walter Jones (the Freedom Fries guy) and a small group of House members introduced legislation requiring Bush to publish a timetable to bring the troops home. U.S. generals and Pentagon leaks continue to shed light on the inability of the U.S. forces to defeat the Iraqi insurgency. Not since the Vietnam War has the question of a U.S. defeat of historic proportions loomed so large.

This developing situation presents a real chance for the anti-war movement to make a big difference. The movement to get Bush and his allies out of Iraq will be most effective by continuing to insist on the ‘out now’ approach. It’s a big mistake to raise slogans like, ‘out when possible’ or ‘set a timetable.’ Anything short of demanding an immediate end to the occupation falls short of what is needed.

In Iraq the people are organized and fighting back! They are proud, intelligent and willing to sacrifice. The phony ‘war on terror’ of Bush stands exposed. Iraqis are fighting for the liberation of their country from the domination of U.S. and British capitalists. From an Iraqi point of view the only ‘foreign terrorists’ in their country are the U.S. and British occupiers. The Iraqi people demand, “End the U.S. and British occupation!”

On the home front, Bush’s war for oil and control of the Middle East wastes billions of taxpayer dollars. Many who supported the war now shake their heads and mumble to themselves at the gas pump as prices rise. The U.S. government spends $250 million a day to wage war and occupy Iraq – money better spent at home on healthcare, education, housing and the environment. Some soldiers, especially Black and Latino soldiers, return home to working-class neighborhoods described as ‘war zones’ by the media. Instead of war in Iraq, we need a war on poverty at home.

Join us! Thousands will climb aboard buses, with the cheers of their loved ones in their ears. The protesters represent a wide cross-section of the American people and millions in their hometowns will support the mass protests in D.C and California. The mobilization for September 24th National Coalition protest in D.C. is already happening. Buses are confirmed from as far away as Minneapolis, Chicago and Cincinnati. The word is out on the streets of New York. San Francisco and Los Angeles are organizing. People will drive for hours, some through the night, to send Bush an anti-war message hard to ignore. The American people join the rest of the world to say, “No to war! End the occupation of Iraq! Bring the troops home now!”

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