This letter is composed by a group of 17 Mainers from throughout the state.

We are joined tonight in a united purpose: to remain in Sen. Collins office on the 14th and the 15th of May to represent the vast majority of Mainers who want the Iraq Occupation to end, and who want the troops to return home now.

The Iraq war was a premeditated criminal act. Neither futher funding nor continuing the occupation should be allowed. This war embodies the most serious of war crimes: crimes against the Iraqi people, and our own American soldiers. The cost is extreme in terms of human suffering, creating two million war refugees in addition to the 2.5 million Iraqis who are displaced in country.

In addition, this war creates suffering for our own people at home. Many of our own residents have no food, no heat, no jobs, and inadequate health care.

We want our tax dollars back in our own state and country to rebuild our own communities.

Any further Iraq funding should go only toward military withdrawal, reconstruction, and reparations — not continued military presence. It is immoral and unconscionable to make Iraqis pay for the reconstruction.

Just as Sen. Collins is responsible for her acts, we are responsible to remind her of a previous statement to end this war. We urge Sen. Collins, as our elected representative, to vote against any further funding of the Occupation of Iraq.

We urge people to spread the message of our resistance and take action to help to bring an end to this atrocity, to this madness.

Contact: 207-607-9063]