Clearly the results of military endeavors throughout the world have caused untold agonies, sorrow, and destruction. It is absurd to continue to repeat the same actions, just with "better" weapons, and believe that we will create a better and safer world. I believe it is past time to try another avenue, allowing our citizens to lend their weight to Peacekeeping rather than arms bearing. Call me, we will talk.

Fallujah. Mosul. Baghdad. Hearing these names again sends a chill down my spine. As a Marine who served in Iraq, I know well the bloody costs paid by Americans and by Iraqis in these and so many other cities over the past decade. I have friends who to this day remain on the front lines of a sectarian conflict that is tearing their homeland apart. And I am saddened to see the renewed and growing violence once again gripping Iraq. But I also know that the solution to the chaos in Iraq is not another American military intervention. The president was right to end the Iraq War in 2011, and it would be a tremendous mistake to restart it now. The United States and Iraq have already paid dearly for George W. Bush’s disastrous decision to launch the Iraq War. With Iraq once again descending into violence, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past. No military intervention, whether a massive invasion like the one in 2003 or the limited airstrikes some are calling for today, will solve the deep and complex challenges Iraq is facing. Iraq’s problems can only be solved by Iraqis, not American bombs. Launching another military intervention in Iraq would only throw more fuel on a fire that is raging. Even worse, it would once again risk American lives in a fight that is not ours and that we cannot win. Over the past few days, the news has been filled with stories of a swift insurgent advance through northern Iraq. Sunni militants, under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have taken over city after city in northern Iraq. These militants, fresh from the fight in neighboring Syria, have made dramatic progress, capturing American-made weapons and supplies left behind by the fleeing Iraqi security forces. Their advance is fueled in no small part by the repressive sectarian policies of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The situation may get worse before it gets better, but one thing is clear: American bombs are not the solution. Even more chilling than watching the violence in Iraq is listening to the pundits here at home. The very same men and women who lied to the American public and sent thousands of my fellow men and women in uniform to their deaths are now leading the charge for another military intervention. Many of these men should be in jail; none of them should be listened to. If my friends in Iraq are to ever find peace, if their children and their grandchildren have any chance of growing up without the butchery of beheading knives and the carnage of car bombs, peace will come through negotiation and settlement, as it briefly did post-2007, and not through an American strategy of choosing sides, choosing winners and losers, and indulging in the self-satisfactory, self-indulgent, guilt-erasing, yet illusory, medication of bombing.

Iraq is an articial nation put together as a French Mandate (Colony) after WWI. It will always be unstable until each of the three groups (Kurds, Shite and Suni Arabs) which were stuck together get their own sovereignity. Let the end pay itself loss of another American life. Our last lengthy venture thee cost oone trillion dollars and solved nothing.

I own a business in the US and can't trade my products directly with Cuba due to the embargo. This is an economic failure for US business.

The reason for this petition is only to let the American government know that perhaps U.S.A. government is concerned with Islamic republic in Iran atomic activity , but more than 80 million Iranians concern is human rights and only human rights .

I am a member of Military Families Speak Out. Our goal has to bring our family members home & the have them taken care of once they get home. The war in Afghanistan has been going on longer than any other in American history & our troops have been continually recycled through the war zones on repeated deployments. It is time for Pres. Obama to keep his PROMISE to bring these honorable Americans home NOW.

President Obama is under pressure to deepen U.S. military involvement in Syria's sectarian civil war. But as President Obama recently said, “Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force after we’ve just gone through a decade of war at enormous cost to our troops and to our budget?” In particular, President Obama is under pressure to approve the transfer of "manpads," or shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons, to Syrian insurgents. Transfer of these weapons to Syrian insurgents, who are fighting alongside groups affiliated with Al Qaeda, would increase the risk of terrorist attacks against civilian aircraft throughout the region, including in Israel. U.S. transfer of these weapons to Syrian insurgents would also violate international law, and undermine international agreements against the proliferation of these weapons that were initiated by the United States. Urge President Obama and Congress to resist pressure for deeper U.S. military involvement in Syria's sectarian civil war by signing our petition.

As a Southern California resident, I know all too well how easy it is to get in the wrong lane - on either side of the border - and end up somewhere you didn't intend. This young former Marine had just moved here from another state and was driving at night in a borrowed truck. He ended up in the wrong lane and had no choice but to enter Mexico, where he attempted to turn around and come home immediately. When he truthfully answered questions at the border about having weapons, he was arrested. There is no reason for Mexico to be holding him, except to gain political leverage with the U.S. It is clear that he did not intend to commit a crime. Andrew Tahmooressi has already spent more than a month in a Mexican prison. The 25-year-old machine gunner was diagnosed with PTSD after his two deployments to Afghanistan, and was receiving treatment at a local VA hospital. But since his arrest in Mexico, his family and friends fear the worst. One likens his current situation to the conditions experienced by a POW, and worries about the effect of the confinement on his mental health. He should be released immediately.

This week, Congress has key opportunities to move to end the endless state of war that the country has been in for more than a decade. Reps. Justin Amash [R-MI] and John Conyers [D-MI] are introducing a bipartisan amendment on the National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA] that would bar the U.S. from transferring shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons (“manpads”) to insurgents in Syria. Transfer of these dangerous weapons, which could easily fall into the hands of anti-U.S. terrorists, would threaten civilian aircraft throughout the region and violate international agreements initiated by the U.S. The Obama Administration opposes the transfer of manpads to Syria; the Amash-Conyers amendment would codify the Administration’s position into law. Rep. Ted Yoho [R-FL] has introduced an amendment to the NDAA which would bar the CIA from conducting drone strikes. This reform, which is supported by Human Rights Watch, among others, would force the government to disclose more information about the drone strike policy. Reps. Barbara Lee [D-CA] and Adam Schiff [D-CA] intend to introduce an amendment to the NDAA which would repeal the 2001 AUMF. The broad 2001 AUMF, rushed through Congress in the days after the 9/11 attacks, has been used to justify a wide array of abuses in the “war on terror,” including torture, indefinite detention, and drone strikes outside of legal armed conflict against people who were not threatening the United States. Reps. Peter Welch [D-VT], Walter Jones [R-NC], and Mick Mulvaney [R-SC] are circulating a letter to the White House in opposition to the supply of manpads to insurgents in Syria. Senators Mark Udall [D-CO] and Rand Paul [R-KY] are demanding that the Administration publish secret memos written by David Barron purporting to justify the use of drone strikes outside a legal armed conflict, as ordered by an appellate court, before voting on Barron’s nomination as a judge. If other Senators back them, the Administration will be forced to share more information about the drone strike policy, information crucial for judging whether it is legal, ethical, and wise. Urge your legislators in the House and Senate to press for these crucial reforms by signing our petition.

The Democratic Party in the House of Representatives needs to appoint one and only one best possible person to the House Committee to investigate Benghazi one more time. There is no better candidate than Alan Grayson. It is time that the Democrats had a spokesperson who could stand up to the rhetoric of Republicans like Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Eric Cantor.

The embargo against Cuba and the Helms-Burton Act hurt people in the US, Cuba and people around the world. These vicious policies restrict trade as well as the exchange of scientific, medical and cultural information. US companies cannot sell their products to Cuba and people in the US cannot buy Cuban products. Cuba has many innovative medicines for which people in the US have no access. For example, the Cubans have developed cancer fighting drugs, drugs which treat the effects of diabetes and drugs which reduce cholesterol. As a person recovering from cancer, my rights are being violated since I have no access to medicines which might help me. My rights are also violated since these policies make it difficult for me to travel to Cuba and benefit from scientific and cultural exchanges. It is past time to normalize relations with one of our closest neighbors. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Fractionalization in the Jewish Community has never been good for Jewish people or the state of Israel. Friendly fire from with the Jewish community should not be tolerated as a substitute for difficult discussions and finding common ground. Leadership of organizations allegedly representing us need to be continually reminded we are a distinct, but very diverse multicultural minority and need to work together on important issues. Excluding Jewish voices or threatening to leave any group trying to represent a "big tent" group of people and positions is not easy, but there needs to be inclusion and the listening to the other even when there are difficult disagreements.