VFP Issues Press Release In Response to President Obama’s Speech This Week
VFP is calling on the President to:
- Make diplomacy the number one priority with all interested parties and without pre-conditions.
- Stop the airstrikes because the Sunni leaders and militia, who President Obama acknowledges must be persuaded to break with ISIL, see the U.S. as acting as the air force for the Kurds and Shia against Sunnis. Bombing Sunnis will not help mend this relationship.
- Stop the slippery slope of sending troops to the fight.
- Stop sending more weapons that fuel the conflict, killing more civilians and ignoring human rights violations committed by “allies.”
- Initiate a new effort at building a broad diplomatic solution in the United Nations to use diplomatic and financial pressure to stop countries from financing and arming ISIL and other fighters in Syria. An arms embargo on all sides should be on the long-term agenda.
- Massively increase humanitarian efforts through the UN and any other means. The United States should welcome more refugees from Syria and other war torn nations, and should donate generously to United Nations refugee resettlement programs. <Full Press Release>
