[pjw] EVENT REMINDER: March and rally to mark 30 years after "Gulf War" Fri Jan 15, 5 PM

Thu Jan 14 12:38:50 EST 2021

Hi PJW supporters
With all the preparation for Tuesday's livestream (which went very well-- 
report back coming soon) I forgot to remind folks about tomorrow's 
specially themed Friday rally marking 30 years since the first Iraq war.

I just sent out the below news release which is mostly a rehash of the 
2016 event we did on the 25th anniversary in 2016, with a few updates.

Please share widely, even though it's short notice at this point.
dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2021 09:32:02
From: Peace and Justice Works <pjw at pjw.info>
To: News Media <newsmedia at pjw.info>
Subject: NEWS: March and rally to mark 30 years after "Gulf War" Fri Jan 15,
     5 PM

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

NEWS ITEM

For immediate release   January 14, 2021

Media contact: Dan Handelman, Peace and Justice Works, 503-236-3065

                   "30 Years Too Long: US Out of Iraq"
            Weekly Friday Rally and March for Peace and Justice
                      Friday, January 15, 2021
                              5:00 PM
           Pioneer Courthouse Square, SW Yamhill and Morrison

Three iterations of war, millions of lives, and 30 years later, the United 
States continues its military and economic intervention in the country of Iraq. 
Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group will remember the date that "Gulf 
War Part I" began in 1991 at the weekly Friday Rally for Peace and Justice on 
January 15 at 5:00 PM at Pioneer Courthouse Square, SW Yamhill and Morrison. 
The event is titled "30 Years Too Long: US Out of Iraq."

In 1991, President George HW Bush gave Saddam Hussein a deadline of January 
15-- Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday-- to withdraw Iraqi troops from 
neighboring Kuwait. The next day, January 16, the US began one of the most 
intense bombing campaigns in history, eventually driving Iraqi forces out of 
the Emirate (and strafing retreating Iraqi troops on the "Highway of Death"). 
The US continued killing Iraqis directly through enforcing "no-fly zones" in 
Northern and Southern Iraq, and a bombing campaign in late 1998 launched while 
President Clinton was facing impeachment. The unprecedented sanctions put in 
place after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait decimated Iraq, causing the deaths 
of at least half a million children, which Secretary of State Madeline Albright 
acknowledged in a CBS interview, stating "the price... we think the price is 
worth it."

The sanctions were finally lifted, for the most part, after the US bombed and 
invaded Iraq starting on March 19, 2003 (Iraq War part II) in a mission dubbed 
"shock and awe." Thousands upon thousands of Iraqis were killed not only by the 
US bombing and invading forces, but by sectarian strife triggered by the 
killing of Saddam Hussein and the dismantling of the existing government. These 
actions led to the rise of both Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State. At 
least 4800 American soldiers died in the effort, which left Iraq in more chaos 
than it had been in before the invasion. Although most American troops were 
withdrawn in December 2011, hundreds remained, in part to guard the world's 
largest embassy-- the US embassy in Baghdad.

On August 8, 2014, the US began bombing Iraq for the third time in 25 years, 
ostensibly to support Iraq's fight against the Islamic State. Dozens of Iraqi 
civilians have been reported killed by the air campaign, and despite the 
promise of "no boots on the ground," at least 3500 American soldiers, acting as 
"advisors" and "special operations forces," returned to the country. The US' 
massive bombing of Mosul in 2017 reduced that city to rubble and killed 
thousands of civilians.

On January 12, 1991 in Portland, the Coalition Against US Military Intervention 
in the Middle East (CAUSMIME) rallied 12,000 people in Pioneer Courthouse 
Square, days before the war broke out. CAUSMIME also held weekly Friday rallies 
in Pioneer Courthouse Square for several months before and after the war began, 
an inspiration to the current rallies which have continued weekly since 
November 2001. Originally coordinated by Portland Peaceful Response Coalition, 
Peace and Justice Works took over hosting duties when the COVID lockdown began 
in late March 2020.

"The significance of the 'Gulf War' in world history cannot be underestimated," 
said Dan Handelman of Peace and Justice Works (PJW), who was also part of 
CAUSMIME in 1991-92. "It marked the beginning of the post-Cold War era where US 
intervention around the world, and particularly in the Middle East, became 
routine, unchallenged, and never-ending."

In 2016, PJW posted historical documents about this history of opposition to 
the war against Iraq in Portland which can still be seen at
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl.html .

For more information contact Peace and Justice Works at 503-236-3065 or 
iraq at pjw.info.

-----------------------

* Historical documents:

  o Article on 1/12/91 March (12-15,000 people):
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl/gulfwarprotest011291.pdf

  o About Portland's 1991 Coalition:
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl/CAUSMIMEpromo.pdf

  o 1991 Weekly Friday Rally organized by CAUSMIME:
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl/CAUSMIME_Friday_rally.pdf

  o Flyer for 2/16/91 Rally and March, which started on the east and west sides, 
both leading to marches that met up at NW Broadway and Everett Sts:
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl/March_rally021691.pdf

  o Flyer: 9/11/92 March vs. No Fly Zones:
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl/ProtestNoFlyZones091192.pdf

  o Flyer: 1/16/96 Vigil 5 Years Later:
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl/GW5ylflyer.pdf

  o 10 Years Later event 1/16/01: * Flyer: 1/16/01 event:
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl/GW10yl_flyer.pdf
   * Details on 1/16/01 event
http://www.pjw.info/GW10yl.html

  o Info on 3/15/03 march, 4 days before Iraq war stared+more:

   * Flyer: 3/15/03 (featuring keynote speaker Rep. John Lewis)
http://www.pjw.info/mar15flyer.pdf
   * Photo of crowd: 3/15/03 (estimated by organizers at 30,000+, Oregonian said 
14,000):
http://pjw.info/mar1503_over14000.jpg
   * 157 cosponsors: 3/15/03
http://www.pjw.info/mar15cosponsor.html
   * Photo of crowd at protest marking one year of Iraq war 3/20/04
http://www.pjw.info/oregonian032004.JPG
   * All major rallies 2002-2015 organized by loose-knit network of Portland 
groups:
http://pjw.info/majormobilizations2002_.html

  o Gulf War, 20 Years Later 1/14/11
http://www.pjw.info/gw20yl.html

  o US still in Iraq after withdrawal 3/20/12
http://pjw.info/iraq9yl.html

  o "No More US Bombs on Iraq" 7/26/14 in lead-up to Iraq War III (8/8/14):
http://www.pjw.info/iraq_war_iii_072614.html