We need to get out of Iraq, not some day, but immediately; not next summer, but tonight. The reasons are dead simple.

First, the entire project has been based on lies. Every reason the adminstration has given us for going in there was a lie — the WMD, the monstrousness of Saddam (compared to Rumsfeld, he was an amateur), the link to al-Qaeda — all were false. (If there ever was a “real” reason to go in there, Bush has never revealed it.) We did not start this war for any of those reasons. Therefore, if those were the reasons, we should not be there.

Second, even if those were not fabrications, even if they were true, they would not have been good reasons to go into Iraq and cause the deaths of 600,000 people. There can almost never be good reason to do such a thing, and this was certainly not one of those rare unavoidable catastrophes. It was avoidable. Bush and his people pursued the war not because it was unavoidable but because they wanted it.

Third, no conceivable benefit can come from us being there. You don’t really think the place is going to fall apart when the U.S. Army leaves, do you? It can’t fall apart because it’s already apart. We destroyed it. It can hardly get any worse, and any chance of its improving will certainly not come from the U.S. military.

The U.S. military did not arrive in Iraq to help anyone, and they are not there now to help anyone. They came fully armed, with some of the most powerful weapons on Earth, to kill and destroy. Sometimes this meant killing everyone they saw, and leveling entire towns. Sometimes they would “try” to avoid killing “civilians” — how very civilized! — but then someone would make them mad and the gloves would come back off. The U.S. military came to lay waste to Iraq, and they succeeded. Now they must leave. Stop killing, right now, and leave.

Don’t worry, when you come home we won’t prosecute or persecute you — just the people who sent you out there. They are the criminals: Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld — the ones who wanted the war.

Can you even imagine a more heinous crime than the President of the United States sending his country into an international conflict, against all international law, to ravage a sovereign nation, and lying to us the whole time to make it happen? Really, what punishment would be too severe for this pack of traitors? — deliberately selling out their own countrymen, for — well, we don’t even know why they did it. But that doesn’t matter. We know what they’ve done, and if there is any justice in this world, they are going to pay for their actions and their deceptions and their betrayals most heavily and for a long time.

… a letter from Michael Moore. Excerpt:

This is what we demand:

1. Bring the troops home now. Not six months from now. NOW. Quit looking for a way to win. We can’t win. We’ve lost. Sometimes you lose. This is one of those times. Be brave and admit it.

2. Apologize to our soldiers and make amends. Tell them we are sorry they were used to fight a war that had NOTHING to do with our national security. We must commit to taking care of them so that they suffer as little as possible. The mentally and physically maimed must get the best care and significant financial compensation. The families of the deceased deserve the biggest apology and they must be taken care of for the rest of their lives.

3. We must atone for the atrocity we have perpetuated on the people of Iraq. There are few evils worse than waging a war based on a lie, invading another country because you want what they have buried under the ground. Now many more will die. Their blood is on our hands, regardless for whom we voted. If you pay taxes, you have contributed to the three billion dollars a week now being spent to drive Iraq into the hellhole it’s become. When the civil war is over, we will have to help rebuild Iraq. We can receive no redemption until we have atoned.

There is only one way to end the war in Iraq, part 1

There is only one way in which the United States will withdraw from Iraq, prior to the end of President Bush’s term: Congress must vote to cut off funds. … Congress can debate and pass legislation for redeployment, phased redeployment, or an over the horizon presence. Congress can vote for a resolution to end the war and a resolution to bring the troops home. However, none of this will have any legal effect. … The Administration does not have to pay any attention to Congress’ attempt to guide the administrative conduct of the war. Once Congress gave its consent for military action, it literally did not have the authority to guide the conduct of the war. At this point, the only option Congress has to guide the conduct of the war is to withdraw approval for the war through a cut off. … [U]nless and until Congress decides to force a new direction by cutting off funds, the United States will continue to occupy Iraq and have a destabilizing presence in the Middle East region.