"Activists Challenge Howard Dean Comments Supporting Continued Occupation''

"We the undersigned join grassroots Democrats from California to Vermont in calling for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. We ask you to join us in our demand that the troops be brought home. We support efforts to repair the damage the war has inflicted on Iraq, but believe that the occupation is causing further damage, encouraging violence, hardening divisions, and failing to train or prepare Iraqis for self-governance. We believe the United States can best help Iraq by supporting reparation efforts financially rather than continuing to spend greater sums of money on an occupation that is aggravating the situation and making all of us less safe. We have admired your past willingness to speak against the war. For the sake of the people of Iraq and of the world, and for the future viability of the Democratic Party, we now ask you to call on the U.S. Congress and the Bush Administration to:1) Publicly commit to leaving all of Iraq's resources in the possession of the Iraqi people, as required by the Geneva and Hague Conventions;2) Convene a meeting of Iraq's leadership, Iraq's neighbors, the United Nations, and the Arab League to create an international peacekeeping force in Iraq and to replace United States Armed Forces in Iraq with Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard forces to ensure Iraq's security;3) Withdraw all U.S. Armed Forces from Iraq after the requirements of #2 are met;4) Contribute financially to the international peacekeeping mission and reconstruction.The California Democratic Party recently passed a resolution calling for an end to the occupation. The New Mexico Democratic Party passed a resolution this past weekend calling for an end to the occupation. House Concurrent Resolution 35, sponsored by Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, calls for an end to the occupation."-from the post on the ILCA website.