Cleveland Peace Action Positions/Recommendations

IRAQ AND THE MIDDLE EAST

1. Support an immediate cease-fire with a timetable to end the Iraq occupation in months, not years.  The US should immediately offer to negotiate with all Iraqi factions, including the insurgents, but not Al-Qaeda, to reduce US troop levels to zero in stages, in exchange for reduced levels of violence, and to increase US economic assistance in exchange for protection of Iraqi minority rights;  after six months if such negotiations fail to take place or do not achieve reduced troop levels and reduced violence levels, the US will then proceed to end its military deployment in Iraq as soon as practicable.  

Stopping the Surge: Can Democrats keep Bush from sending more U.S. soldiers to Iraq?  Salon explores the options, from immediate withdrawal to taking sides in the civil war,  January 4, 2007, Salon staff

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/04/iraq_plans/

Iraq Study Group Recommendations: Far Too Little; Far Too Late, Peace Action Press Release, December 6, 2006   http://www.peace-action.org/presrm/ISGPresponse.html

Four Ways To Stop the War; What Congress could do – if it dared,  Emily Bazelton, Slate.com, Jan. 10, 2007

http://www.slate.com/id/2157392/   

Crude Designs: the rip-off of Iraq’s oil wealth,  Greg Muttitt, Platform, with Global Policy Forum and the Institute for Policy Studies, November 2005   http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2005/crudedesigns.htm