Tonight, Monday, March 24, at 7:00 PM at Main St. and Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains, No War Westchester will hold a demonstration and candlelight vigil to protest the continued US military occupation of Iraq.   Our action will take place in coordination with hundreds of similar vigils across the U.S. marking the grim milestone of 4,000 US troops killed in Iraq.

On Sunday, as the war enters its sixth year, the Pentagon announced 4 more deaths of US troops, bringing the US military death toll to 4,000.  30,000 US troops have been injured, many of them with severe disabling injuries including loss of limbs, hearing and eyesight.   

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed in the war. 2 million Iraqis have left the country as refugees, and another 2.5 million are internally displaced.

The Iraq war and occupation has been an unmitigated disaster for Iraq.  A majority of Iraqis favor a binding timetable for the full withdrawal of US troops from their country. 

The war has cost $522 billion to date, and costs an additional $12 billion each month, at a time when the US economy is in a tailspin and the price of gas has risen to $4.00 per gallon. 

No War Westchester calls for an immediate end to all further funding for US military operations in Iraq, and the safe return of all US forces home from the conflict at the earliest possible date.  We urge Reps. Lowey, Hall and Engel, and Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, to press Congress to terminate funding for the war and bring US troops home now.  The US Congress must confront President Bush, and use its power of the purse to end the war now to prevent additional unnecessary deaths of US troops and Iraqi women, men and children.

We also support immediate Congressional action to censure and impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for leading the nation to war under false pretenses, authorizing the commission of  felony war crimes, including wage of aggressive war, illegal detentions, and torture, and engaging in illegal domestic wiretapping.

Every day the war continues, many more Iraqis and Americans die and are injured.  Yet the embedded US media makes little effort to show the true human consequences of the war, for Iraqis or Americans.  The media is eager to turn the page on today’s grim milestone of 4,000 US military war dead, to focus on celebrity news, a sputtering stock market, and the disconnected Presidential campaign.  Our protest and vigil is another step to break the media blockade, and force a full public debate on stopping the war now -- not months or years later when thousands more will have died.