[pjw] EVENT REMINDER: "Stop the US War on Syria" rally and march Friday 9/22, 5 PM

[Peace and Justice Works]

Iraq Affinity Group supporters

This is a reminder that tomorrow, Friday Sept. 22, we hope you will join 
us (especially because the weather's supposed to be good!) for the 
Portland Peaceful Response Coalition Friday rally at 5 PM at Pioneer 
Courthouse Square (SW Yamhill and Broadway).

Below is the news release we'll be sending out in the morning which 
includes some updated information on the wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, 
and Korea.

see you tomorrow!?
dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

  -----------
Peace and Justice Works
   Iraq Affinity Group
   PO Box 42456
   Portland, OR   97242
   (503) 236-3065  (Office)
   iraq at pjw.info
   http://www.pjw.info/Iraq.html


NEWS ITEM

For Immediate Release      September 22, 2017

OPPOSING AMERICA'S ONGOING WARS: "Stop the US War on Syria"
Pioneer Courthouse Square
SW Yamhill & Broadway
Fridays August 4, September 22 and October 6, 2017 5:00 PM
PPRC Rally/March for Peace and Justice

Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group is co-sponsoring the Portland 
Peaceful Response Coalition Friday Rally on Friday, September 22, with the 
theme "Stop the US War on Syria." The rally will begin at 5 PM at Pioneer 
Courthouse Square, SW Yamhill and Broadway, and includes a march that 
will start about 20 minutes later. In keeping with the overarching theme 
for three rallies being cosponsored from August to October, "Opposing 
America's Ongoing Wars," the Iraq Affinity Group also calls for an end to 
US threats against North Korea, with which the US has technically been at 
war since 1950. The armistice of July 1953 was not a peace treaty, so that 
war is technically even longer than the nearly 16-year war in Afghanistan 
(the focus of the October 6 rally).

September 23 marks 3 years since the US launched its first bombing attacks 
in Syria, ostensibly against the Islamic State, but as shown by the Trump 
administration, as a means to fight against the Syrian government. After 
bombing a Syrian airfield in April and shooting down a Syrian plane in 
June, the US is escalating this war. The US has troops on the ground and 
makeshift airbases in a sovereign nation without their consent or a UN 
mandate.

Foreign Policy reported on September 18 that:
  U.S. planes are dropping more bombs in Afghanistan than at any point
  since Aug. 2012--  when there were 90,000 U.S. combat troops there--
  and are hitting more targets in Iraq and Syria than at any point in the
  three-year campaign, fruit of the Trump administration's looser
  guidelines for authorizing strikes on Islamic State fighters in all three
  countries.

In its August report on military action and civilian casualties, the 
British group Airwars writes that:
  August was the third deadliest month for civilians in Syria and Iraq
  since the start of US-led Coalition actions against so-called Islamic
  State three years ago. Likely deaths more than doubled on July's minimum
  estimates, to their highest levels yet - with between 433 and 643
  civilians likely killed in Raqqa alone.

PJW calls for all the troops to come home and to divert the obscene amount 
of money being spent on the military-- over $600 billion a year (as 
discussed when President Trump made his ridiculous claim that the military 
can't afford to take care of the health of its transgender troops)-- to be 
used for human needs at home. Surely the health care "crisis" would be 
over in an instant if money now being spent to maim and kill were instead 
spent on the well being of the people of the United States.

A flyer for this event can be found at 
http://www.pjw.info/PPRCrallies08_10_17.pdf

For more info:
Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group (503) 236-3065;  iraq at pjw.info
or http://www.pjw.info/Iraq.html. Portland Peaceful Response Coalition 
Friday Rallies have occurred at 5 PM every Friday since November 2001. 
Sept. 22 is their 830th consecutive rally.