Bill seeks to bring troops in Iraq home

A four-part bombing in London Thursday proved the resolve of the British public as their hands were dipped in the blood of an international World War III.\nClaiming retribution for the continued military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the "Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" indicated responsibility on an Islamic Web site for the attacks that murdered about 50 people and injured more than 700 others after three subway stations and a double-decker bus were blown to pieces within minutes of each other by improvised explosive devices. The terrorist group, which is also implicated in the Madrid, Spain, train bombings that killed about 200 people and injured more than 1,400 others, also stated that all other "crusader governments" including Denmark and Italy should expect similar civilian casualties.\n"We are now waging a global war on terror -- from the mountains of Afghanistan to the border region of Pakistan, to the Horn of Africa, to the islands of the Phillippines, to the plains of Iraq," President George Bush said in a radio address Saturday. "We will stay on offense, fighting the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them at home. We will continue to deny the terrorists safe haven and the support of rogue states. And at the same time, we will spread the universal values of hope and freedom that will overwhelm their ideology of tyranny and hate."\nPresident Bush also said America and Great Britain stand together to defeat hateful ideologies of the 21st Century, and he closed by rallying Americans to believe the "cause of freedom" will prevail. His radio address did not indicate whether or not his administration was pursuing a concrete timeline for U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle East nor did the president reference the likelihood of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. \nDespite the president's continued insistence that the "War on Terror" can and will be won by continued American resolve, some campus community members insist war cannot be waged against a noun or a particular military mythology.\n"Freedom to me is to live without fear of being killed, of being threatened with violence, with having enough to eat, with having basic human rights, with having a place to live, with having a place to speak freely. It's a number of things," said Timothy Baer, a member of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition. "Freedom is also about treating others with equality, kindness and generosity. You hear about we are fighting terror for freedom but it turns into just a bunch of empty rhetoric, propaganda."\nAccording to an al-Qaida training manual from the Department of Justice that was obtained by the Manchester Metropolitan Police in England several years ago, their current "Jihad," or Holy War, is being waged against the U.S. and other Western sympathizers for occupying the Middle East with military force after the first Gulf War in 1990. The manual states the belief that the only available tools for Islamic governments to negotiate with Western governments is the use of bombs and rifles because threats of violence beget threats of violence.\n"The confrontation that Islam calls for with these godless and apostate regimes does not know Socratic debate, Platonic ideals nor Aristotelian diplomacy. But it knows the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing, and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine-gun," according to information from the manual. "Islamic governments have never and will never be established through peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established as they have been -- by pen and gun, by word and bullet, by tongue and teeth."\nDue to the resolve of both Americans and the terrorists to employ violence as a justification for their cause -- American freedom for the Middle East versus a Middle East free of America -- California Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 35 to remove the target off the heads of U.S. military personnel occupying Iraq.\nBaer said the U.S. was not an Osama Bin Laden or al-Qaida target until 1990 because the nation did not have any permanent military bases in the Middle East region. He said about 500 people signed a petition in Bloomington throughout the Fourth of July holiday weekend that demands President Bush draft a concrete timetable for military withdrawal from Iraq to increase the likelihood of reduced terrorist attacks at home.\n"H.C.R. 35 speaks to the wrongness of the U.S. occupation of Iraq -- it has concerns for both American soldiers and the people of Iraq," Baer said. "I am committed to the well-being of the people of Iraq, who are mistreated by the policies of this nation. The Bush Administration can say whatever they want about the increasing insurgency but it is being driven by the U.S. presence in Iraq … I am very thankful to live in this country and we as citizens have great potential to do good around the world."\nThe Bush Administration and the Pentagon have plans to build at least four permanent military bases in Iraq in addition to the U.S. military presence in Bahran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The proposed U.S. embassy in Baghdad is also advertised as the world's "largest" home to American government officials outside North America.\nMore than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died throughout the three-year long Iraq war and tens of thousands of soldiers have been wounded. H.C.R. 35 calls for planning and implementing an immediate withdrawal of military forces from Iraq to help U.S. soldiers save themselves from continued death and destruction.\n"Everyone who loves freedom was moved by the courage of millions of Iraqis braving death to cast a ballot on January 30. The Iraqi elections, however, do not justify this war - neither the lies used to sell it, nor the incompetence with which it has been managed," Rep. Woolsey said in a Capitol Hill press conference. "The elections won't bring back the dead or heal the wounded. They won't reimburse the American taxpayers billions of dollars. And the elections won't stop the vicious insurgency that is terrorizing Iraqi communities."\nBaer said House of Representative members Julia Carson (7th district) and Mike Sodrel (9th district), among other elected-Indiana officials, need constant constituent pressure from organized statewide groups to support the campaign. \n"How would citizens of this country feel to be occupied? I think there would be armed resistance," he said. "There are legislatures who act on our behalf, and as constituents we should ask for them to implement foreign policy that is both moral and upholds the principles we as a nation like proclaim -- we talk about justice, liberty and freedom … This war is immoral, illegal and initiated upon lies. We are using napalm-like weapons, cluster bombs and uranium tipped weapons."\nAccording to the al-Qaida manual, the civilians of democratic governments must be held accountable for the actions of their elected government officials. Abiding by that rationale, the 50 dead Londoners Thursday and the more than 3,000 dead Americans from the Sept. 11 attacks are retribution for the hundreds of thousands of unaccounted for life that has been lost from increased U.S. occupation of the Middle East.\nBaer said the presidential belief that Americans aren't dying because the nation is fighting the terrorists in Iraq is deadly rhetoric designed to confuse and bewilder the public into believing no attacks will happen on U.S. soil because soldiers are being slaughtered in Baghdad. Instead, similar to most Americans polled during Bloomington's Fourth of July festivities, he said he believes Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the ultimate terrorist breeding ground for people to increase their hatred toward the U.S. and their willingness to murder American civilians in general. \n"Killing and being killed has nothing to do with America or being an American. We are creating a terrorist training ground in Iraq -- the terrorists feel it is the best place to kill Americans," he said. "Wanting the troops to come home is support for the troops, wanting them to come home in one piece because they are more than cogs in the war machine is acting patriotic. I care about U.S. soldiers as human beings -- the Bush Administration doesn't or they wouldn't be putting them in harm's way ... The military of this country should be about defense"