The War Moratorium (Formerly Iraq Moratorium)

The Third Friday and weekend of April are upon us. If you haven't yet decided how you will break your daily routine and take action to end these unjust and unjustifiable wars, here are three suggestions:

1. Call your Senators and Cogressperson and tell them to vote NO! on the upcoming $34 billion supplemental appropriation to keep the war in Afghanistan. Congress already voted the administration a military budget of $708 billion dollars in January, and already the administration is comng back to the well! At a time of grave ecoonomic hardship for states and municipalities and, most of all, for ordinary Americans, this is a criminal misuse of the taxes you just finished paying.

Calling your elected officials is easier than you might think. Even if you don't recall their names, just call the Congressional Hotline at 202-224-3121 . They will put you through to one of your Senators, then the other, and finally in most cases, using your zipcode, to your Representative. If an official's office line is busy, you will probably be given a chance to record a message. If you get a live response, ask to speak to a staffer working on foreign policy. Be polite, but be firm. Enough is enough!

2. Wear, all day, an anti-war button or a black armband to honor the dead in these never-ending wars. When people ask you about it, tell them why.

3. Talk to friends, family, co-workers about the wars. Email them a link to this site or send them other information on the human and financial cost of the wars.

Thee, if you can spare another moment, tell us what you did, via email.

The Iraq Moratorium is now the War Moratorium.

The Third Friday and Third Weekend of last month, February, marked the final observance of the Iraq Moratorium. Over the preceding two and a half years, several thousand events--mostly vigils, but also art shows, pot luck suppers, mobile “Funk the War” parties. lectures and film showings, concerts, die-ins, fundraisers and much more--underlined one clear demand: Stop the War, Bring the Troops Home Now!

And that’s only the events we know about. What’s more, uncounted thousands broke their daily routine and took some action by themselves, from calling their Congresscritters to praying to wearing buttons, to end the wars.

The Moratorium is not, unfortunately, shutting down because the US occupation of Iraq is over. The Moratorium is not shutting down as a result of the post-election disarray of the anti-war movement.

The Moratorium is not shutting down at all!! Not with 100,000 US troops in Iraq right now and US forces in Afghanistan slated to reach similar levels by September.

No, only the name is changing.

The small handful of activists who have kept this project going since September 2007 faced a dilemma: Continue as the Iraq Moratorium for the name recognition, although the administration’s escalation in Afghanistan is producing casualties--US troops and ordinary Afghanis alike--like those in Iraq a couple of years ago? Change the name to the Afghanistan Moratorium and help the politicians and media types who all act like the war in Iraq is ancient history?

Instead we decided to rename the campaign the War Moratorium.

The basic idea remains the same. The War Moratorium is not an organization and it’s not in competition with other anti-war groups. It is a campaign, a tool for anyone who wants to use it. The idea is simple--it’s summarized in our statement of commitment:

I hereby commit that on the Third Friday and/or Third Weekend of every month I will break my daily routine and take some step by myself or with others to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Please make that commitment! As our slogan says: It’s Got To Stop. We’ve Got To Stop It.