IF YOU CAN'T VOTE OCCUPATION TROOPS OUT OF YOUR COUNTRY
THEN THE VOTE'S FOR THE OCCUPIER, NOT THE OCCUPIED

DEAR FELLOW ANTIWAR ACTIVISTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY:

Join a nationwide response to the "elections" in Iraq next Sunday.

January 30 is a diversion - the real date is March 19 when the world says "TROOPS OUT NOW!"

The Troops Out Now Coalition encourages you to hold protests and press conferences in your localities on
either Sunday Jan. 30, the day of the "elections" in Iraq, or Monday, Jan. 31. The purpose for doing this is to keep
the antiwar movement and the rest of society focused on the real need: the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. occupation troops from Iraq.

The January 30 "elections" in Iraq is a project of the Pentagon, and its purpose is to divert attention away from the ongoing criminal occupation, as well as to legitimatize the war, the occupation, the destruction of cities like Falluja, and the deaths of upwards of one hundred thousand Iraqis, as well as fourteen hundred U.S. troops since the beginning of the war.

The very notion that a country can hold a "democratic" election while it is occupied by a hostile power bent on imposing its designs on that country is profoundly cynical, and an insult to the people everywhere.

And to this insult, Bush wants to add still another injury by asking Congress to approve $80 billion more for his war.

At the same time that Bush, Rumsfeld and Rice are putting their spin on the "elections" this weekend, we need to be calling attention to the need to strengthen the movement to bring the troops home. Wherever we are, let's tell the
world this weekend that the important date is not January 20, but March 19, the second anniversary of the start of the war, when people all across the U.S. and the world will take to the streets once again to demand "Troops Out Now".