© Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee 2007

 

Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition (NOAC)
c/o American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
10916 Magnolia Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106
Phone: 216-736-4716
Email: NOACinfo@aol.com     Website: www.noacinfo.org

Remarks at press briefing re October 27 Chicago antiwar march
Greg Coleridge, Northeast Ohio Antiwar Coalition
North Shore Federation of Labor, Cleveland, Ohio

NOAC joins with the North Shore Federation of Labor, USLAW, Peace Action and other groups in endorsing the Oct 27 regional march/rally in Chicago calling for ending the war and bringing troops home now.

These groups are part of an ever growing number of citizens who

  1. oppose the war,
  2. see it as too costly in human lives on all sides
  3. understand it to be not about democracy but oil,  power projection, & profits
  4. advocate for defunding it and refunding human and economic needs at home
  5. are committed to ending it, for bringing the troops home, for closing military bases, for letting Iraqis run their own country without US interference
  6. and who demand no war with Iran.

Many of us were against the Iraq war before it began – warning anyone who would listen that attacking, invading and occupying Iraq was illegal and unconstitutional, that it was unwinnable, that it would be costly and that it was about oil, greed and empire.

Facts re costs of war and occupation

  1. More than $720 million is spent every single day on the war/occupation -- $426 million tax dollars have come from Cleveland alone.
  2. More than 3800 Americans killed -- more than 150 Ohioans alone and 1000 Ohio injured.
  3. More than 1 million Iraqis have been killed.
  4. More than 4 million Iraqis have been displaced.

We can’t depend on politicians to end this war. The Bush administration is firmly committed to surging their way toward a quagmire. Most Congressional Republicans march lock step and vote for every supplemental appropriation bill – claiming that more money, which results in more US soldier deaths and injuries fighting a war of ever diminishing returns in a nation where people don’t want them, is “supporting the troops.”
As far as Democrats go, their leadership is now giving up efforts calling for a quick withdrawal and quick end to the war.  Clearly, it is up to us, We the People of this nation, in solidarity with those everywhere throughout the world who are against this war, to oppose and resist.

That’s what Chicago is about