Though many want the war to end, pictures of Iraq in the media lead us to question the wisdom of immediate withdrawal. We are told the United States must prevent civil war and protect Iraq's democracy.
However, the U.S. government is ignoring Iraqi voices in favor of its own economic agenda in the region.
In 2005, the Iraqis voted for political parties because of those parties' opposition to occupation. One-hundred fifty U.S. businesses have been awarded contracts totaling $50 billion, while 50 percent of Iraq's population, including the engineers who designed the infrastructure, remains unemployed.
Factional rivalry after the mosque bombings rightly evoked fears of civil war. However, there were also peaceful protests in a many cities held by Shia and Sunni Muslims calling for solidarity and an end to the occupation. Ignoring these calls for reconciliation, the U.S. military is training Iraqi Shia and Kurdish police to assassinate Sunni resistance leaders. In short, the United States is not preventing civil war, it is inciting it.
Last fall, nearly 20,000 signatures got the following referendum on today's ballot: Should the United States bring all military personnel home from Iraq now?
Building Iraq for Iraqis and getting our men and women home will take many forms of action and dissent—voting yes today is an important one, and a great first step toward peace.
Benjamin Ratliffe
UW-Madison Senior
Cultural Anthropology
