Message from Martin Sheen _ pass it on

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Download, print out and send a copy of this letter to your friends and family
http://warresisters.org/MartinSheenletter.pdf

Message from Martin Sheen _ pass it on

March, 2006

Dear Friends,

I'm not the president--I just play one on TV! Like many, perhaps
most, of you, I'm a pacifist. If I ran the real West Wing, this great
country would be using all its might to resist war, and we wouldn't
need a War Resisters League. However, with the war in Iraq claiming
more than 100,000 (mostly civilian) Iraqi lives so far, the reality
is that we do need the War Resisters League. I am writing you today
to ask for your help for WRL's efforts to end this war and all war.

So far, besides Iraqi casualties, the occupation the Bush
administration calls "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has also claimed
almost 2,300 American lives, with about 16,400 wounded--and most of
them are our youth. Bereaved families have begun to question the real
reasons behind the war. A bereaved mother-turned-activist, Cindy
Sheehan, camped outside the president's Texas Ranch throughout the
month of August, longing to ask Bush, "Why did my son Casey die in Iraq?"

The president has refused to meet with Cindy ever since she began
criticizing his conduct of the war and the U.S. occupation of Iraq. I
met with her outside Bush's ranch on August 28. "At least you've got
the acting president," I told her. However, I couldn't give her what
she really wanted: a satisfactory answer to her terrible questions,
"Whose interests was he protecting?" and "What is the noble cause
that he died for?"

There are many bereaved military families out there asking the same
questions and trying to justify the loss of innocent lives. Some are
grieving privately, but others have turned their grief into
constructive activism, joining organizations like the Gold Star
Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out.

The War Resisters League believes that there is no satisfactory
answer to those questions. Rather, the war and occupation are serving
the interests of only a narrow group of profiteers. We believe that
Iraq and indeed the world would be better served by the immediate
withdrawal of all U.S. troops from that devastated country. However,
it will take more than one Cindy Sheehan to persuade the Bush
administration to change its policies; it will take hundreds of
thousands of people nonviolently protesting and demanding answers
till there is a positive change.

That's where you come in; the War Resisters League is organizing
those thousands. Across the country, its "Stop the Merchants of
Death" campaign is providing people with the real answers to Cindy
Sheehan's question. Its counter-recruitment campaign is exposing the
myths that the military uses to lure youth into the armed forces.

Ambitious and progressive as our goal is, we need the financial and
human resources to get our message out to the hundreds of thousands
who need to hear it. Watch this! If everyone reading this letter put
a $10 check in the enclosed envelope and dropped it in the mail
today, WRL could bring hundreds of people into the streets to protest
these wars. If half of you mailed a $50 check, we could bring
thousands. Whatever you can afford to send--whether it is $25, $100,
$500, or more--will move the peace project forward at this desperate
time. So please: make a difference. Contribute something by sending a
check to WRL, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012, or donating
at < http://www.warresisters.org>www.warresisters.org. And please--do it today.

Help make this country a little more like the one I'd be president of.

In peace,

Martin Sheen

PS: If you wish your gift to be tax-deductible, make your check of
more than $50 payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute.

Download, print out and send a copy of this letter to your friends and family
http://warresisters.org/MartinSheenletter.pdf