All the while, we've been working closely with Iraqis. We hosted Iraqi women on speaking tours throughout the U.S. and raised funds to help refugees. We traveled to Iraq six times to deepen our knowledge and our networks, and when it became too dangerous (one of our delegations was held up at gunpoint and one of our colleagues killed), we began meeting with Iraqis in Jordan instead. Just last month, we met with Iraqi Parliamentarians to support their efforts at Sunni-Shia reconciliation.
We've been hauled off to jail-over the over again-when we brought our anti-war message to the Democratic and Republican conventions, the United Nations, Senate offices, congressional hearings, political fundraisers, Halliburton shareholder meetings and Pentagon briefings.
We've been banned for life from the National Press Club, banned from several military bases, banned from the area around Congress, banned from the United Nations. One of us was even banned from Washington DC for an entire year!
Sadly, despite our efforts and those of hundreds of other peace groups, we have not been able to stop the war. Nor have we been able to spark a truly mass movement. But CODEPINK groups have sprung up in over 250 communities at home and abroad, we have over 150,000 on our email list, we have trained hundreds of new activists, and we have helped turned the tide of public opinion. While early on peace activists were vilified by the press as unpatriotic Saddam-lovers, today we represent the majority of Americans who say this war was a mistake and want to see a speedy withdrawal of our troops. We also represent the majority of Iraqis, who in poll after poll have shown that they want U.S. troops to leave.
