The war continues, much as the Vietnam war did after the aforementioned protests. In fact, George Bush recently commented during his visit to Vietnam that the basic mistake made by the United States during its murderous campaign in Vietnam was that it quit before victory was achieved.
Now, I don't know about you, but that statement sounds awfully dangerous to me. If Bush and his advisors (civilian and military) truly believe this and are willing to say so in public, then we are even further from a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq than every politician in DC thinks (or hopes) we are. At least, back in 1969, Richard Nixon was telling the US people that he was working on a withdrawal plan that he called "Peace With Honor." Of course, that turned out to be a lie, as the invasion of Cambodia proved a mere five-and-a-half months later. George Bush and Dick Cheney aren't even pretending that they want US forces to withdraw from Iraq. In their minds, anything short of their definition of victory is surrender. General Abizaid recently backed these two men on this when he told Congress that setting any kind of withdrawal date or timeline would not be a good idea.
At this time, it is not clear to anybody willing to talk about it how such a victory is to take place. Rumors abound about increases in US troop strength in Iraq and a step up in the training of Iraqi forces. Simultaneously, Guard and Reserve units are being reactivated for another tour of duty in the war zone. Acquaintances of mine with sons in the US Special Forces tell me their kids (young men actually) are going over to Iraq and Afghanistan in the spring with a new mission—to train Iraqi and Afghani troops in US leadership techniques. Given what we know about Special Forces training, one can assume that the training will include more than leadership techniques. Furthermore, any influx of Special Forces tends to prove Washington's intentions of fighting in Iraq over the long haul. To illustrate this point, let me quote a piece by a certain Bruce Hoffman, a US counterinsurgency expert employed by the RAND corporation (if the reader will recall, the Rand Corporation was Pentagon Papers exposer Daniel Ellsberg's employer, as well). Anyhow, Hoffman writes, "Increasing the number of U.S. military special forces in Iraq in coming months could enhance the training of Iraqi military forces and police in counterinsurgency." He continues by noting that the presence of such forces in Iraq would have to be for the foreseeable future. Given that the piece was written in 2004, that foreseeable future two years after the fact is (even moreso) at best indeterminable. Succinctly put, there is no indication from the Pentagon or the White House that they believe or want US troops (much less the CIA and its mercenaries) to leave either Iraq or Afghanistan in the next few years, much less the next few months.
This is where we come in. There is a protest against the war being planned by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) for January 27, 2007 in Washington, DC. This is around the date when the new Congress will take its seats in the Capitol Building. The stated purpose of the protest is to "call on Congress to take immediate action to end the war." The hope is that hundreds of thousands of US residents will show up on that Saturday and bring the message home that we want an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
More:
http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=679&mode=nocomments&order=0&thold=0K&R
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