End Wars and Occupations IOT Monthly Conference Call - Progressive Democrats of America

 November 2011 sound  chat room 
 
Link to Sound File  Link to Chat Room Archive

Our featured speaker, Sandy Davies, started at the 5:30 minute mark and he described the US Embassy in Iraq as being a colonial outpost. The picture of how Iraq has fared under US occupation is not a pretty one. The occupation will not end with the departure of US troops this year. US embassies around the world are understaffed to begin with and moving so many State Department persons to Iraq constitutes a real drain on diplomatic staff elsewhere. He finds it unlikely that US troops will be returning to Iraq anytime soon. The US people and their political leadership came out of the Cold War with profoundly different priorities, the people wanted a “peace dividend” whereas the leadership wanted more power over the rest of the world.

Virginia then spoke on “The 51st State: Not One More Acre,” about efforts to block the military seizures of land in Colorado and New Mexico.

Mark Prine gave a short report on Afghanistan and the bill to establish a Status of Forces Agreement and a deadline for US troops to withdraw from there.