I’ve started giving out copies of the quarter-page flier that the AFSC has made to explain the resolution. First of all, it has a nice design, and the cool logo: an outline of a dove with a photo of Portland in it (see it here). More importantly, it explains the cost of the war to Portlanders (over $400 million) and the sorts of things we are giving up in order to pay for the ongoing occupation. It’s based on estimates from the National Priorities Project, a group that is tracking the hard cost of the invasion and occupation.
We were talking about it the need to end the occupation of Iraq today over brunch at Acadia (while eating beignets) and how the election results have shown that people want it to end. All we need to do is get the petition into public places. It’s just downright bizarre that Portland hasn’t managed to pass an anti-invasion or anti-occupation resolution yet, but at least now is a particularly opportune time to be acting for peace— the next few months will be crucial in terms of ending the occupation and figuring out how we’re going to help Iraq rebuild itself. Of course, it’s awful that the occupation has dragged on for this long, but I’d rather focus on what is possible now than what we should’ve done. After all, I can’t organize people to change the past, only the present and the future.
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