AS INVASION BECOMES OCCUPATION, GREENS CALL FOR SUSTAINED EFFORT TO ENSURE PEACE

Greens reiterate the call for International
Criminal Court powers to investigate both sides,
and challenge Americans against the war: the
Green Party represents the only real political
alternative for peace.


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Leaders of the Green Party of
the United States urged Americans who oppose the
war on Iraq to begin planning for electoral
action and new steps to ensure global peace and
democracy.

"With the imminent fall of the Saddam regime, we
need to turn our attentions towards ensuring
peace and democracy in Iraq and throughout the
world," said Badili Jones, Georgia Green and
co-chair of the national party. "For the Green
Party, that means democratizing the U.S.
political system, electing Greens to public
office, and replacing our military economy with
one based on peace, social justice, and ecology."

The Green Party supports the International
Criminal Court (ICC) with the power to try Saddam
Hussein (if captured instead of killed) for
atrocities against his own people -- and also the
power to investigate the Bush Administration for
launching an illegal, unprovoked attack on
another nation on fabricated evidence of a
threat.

"An effective ICC would be able to scrutinize the
Pentagon's use of cluster bombs, depleted
uranium, and other weapons that kill and maim
civilians and damage the health of U.S. veterans;
and investigate the slaughter of civilians and
the apparent targeting of independent media, such
as al-Jazeera and Reuters," said Mark Dunlea,
co-chair of the Green Party of New York State.
"Such a court must be fair and impartial, whether
it targets murderous dictators like Saddam or
acts done in the cause of global empire, as in
the case of President Bush."

Greens acknowledge that prosecuting the victors
would be enormously difficult. "Saddam's defeat
won't mean the end of the Pentagon's war
schemes," said J. Roy Cannon, Peace Committee
chair in the Green Party of Delaware. "The White
House intends to topple other governments,
beginning with Syria and Iran. In the 90s, the
Project for a New American Century drafted the
Bush doctrine of preemptive invasion in the cause
of global empire. Its participants include
Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and other Bush
officials."

"Their plan is consistent with the treatment of
Iraq as a feeding trough for Halliburton,
Bechtel, and other favored corporations, and the
postwar installment of American corporate honchos
and generals, murderous Iraqi military strongmen,
and corrupt stooges like Ahmed Chalabi in
Baghdad," Cannon added.

Greens assert that it will require serious,
sustained political organizing to resist these
plans and policies, but warn that the Democratic
Party has already capitulated. Most of the major
Democratic presidential hopefuls have supported
the war; Sen. Bob Graham is urging Bush to
consider missile attacks on Syria.

"Without the Greens in 2004, the peace movement
will find itself marooned with Democrats who
favor war and swim in corporate money," said
Starlene Rankin, Lavender Green Caucus delegate
to the party's national committee. "The Green
Party will lead the opposition in this new era of
American empire and corporate dominance."


MORE INFORMATION

The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
National office: 1314 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-296-7755, 866-41GREEN

The Project for a New American Century
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

Green Party Mobilization for Peace
http://www.gp.org/peace.html