-“Troops Home Fast” draws thousands around the world in opposition to occupation of Iraq-

 

Washington, D.C. - In a strong show of solidarity with the tens of thousands of brave men and women serving in Iraq, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) recently joined thousands of other activists from across the nation, and around the world, in fasting against the occupation of Iraq.

“On March 1, 2003, the U.S. stopped fighting a war in Iraq and started leading an occupation,” Woolsey said during a press conference on Thursday.  “That’s the day that President Bush, speaking under a banner with the words ‘Mission Accomplished,” declared: “major combat operation in Iraq have ended."

“If we had left after - according to the President - the “mission had been ‘accomplished,’ we could have prevented the deaths of over 2,500 American soldiers.”

Led by the anti-war group Code Pink, the “Troops Home Fast” campaign has united over 3,700 people from musicians Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt, to veterans and homemakers.  They stand together in using one of the oldest forms of non-violent protests to voice their opposition to this unjustified and illegal war.

“I fasted myself yesterday because I wanted to highlight this grave injustice of the Iraq occupation,” Woolsey said.  “Whatever discomfort experienced by me and other hunger strikers, is obviously nothing in comparison to the danger faced by American soldiers in Iraq… or the horrific conditions that Iraqi people must endure every single day.”

Woolsey has been a fierce critic of the Bush administration’s war in Iraq, and the continued occupation that has existed for the last three years.  One of the founders of the “Out of Iraq,” Caucus, Woolsey, in January of 2005, became the first member of Congress to officially call for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.  She has continued to reiterate her strong opposition to the continued occupation, and has since taken to the House floor 159 times to urge her colleagues to bring the troops home.