Students for Victory in Iraq depends on you, our members, to actively participate in the ongoing campaign to prevent an unwarranted withdrawal and defeat in Iraq. Together, we collectively take action to achieve our three objectives.

I. Encourage the Administration & Congress to support the mission in Iraq

II. Educate the public about the importance of victory

III. Support members of the military, their families, and those of our allies

Below you will find the latest action items for each of these three objectives.

Call Your Senators and Prevent the Webb Amendment from Enacting a Backdoor Surrender

This week, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia introduced an amendment that requires a fixed amount of rest time for troops between deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. On the surface, this looks good, but according to the Pentagon, General David Petraeus, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, leading military officials and Vets for Freedom, the Webb Amendment is an attempt to bring back the Murtha 'slow-bleed' strategy, which aims to severely restrict military commanders as a means of forcing a retreat from Iraq.

If this legislation passes, the number of troops available to our commanders in Iraq would be greatly reduced, and many of the security gains we have made would be in jeopardy. It is clear that the goal of this legislation is not to strengthen the military in its mission, but to make it impossible to complete that mission.

Please call the Senate switchboard at 1-888-362-2813, ask to speak to your US Senators, and demand that they vote against the Webb Amendment. Tell your senators that the Webb Amendment hurts America's military and its ability to defeat terrorism in Iraq, and that strategy should be decided by generals on the ground and not legislated in the Senate.

Update: The Webb Amendment failed to reach cloture in the Senate by a vote of 56-44, and thus was defeated. Pro-victory Senators held firm from their previous vote on the amendment in July, and Senator Warner of Virginia changed his yes vote in July to a no vote this week, indicating a loss in support for the measure. We are beginning to turn back the tide in Congress, so keep up the good work!

Iraq Wiki Truth Project

Wikipedia is becoming an increasingly influential and trusted source for information, and unfortunately, much of its content on the counterinsurgency mission in Iraq is skewed, missing vital information, or is incorrect. As informed, tech-savvy citizens, we have a responsibility to do our best to ensure that the information provided on Wikipedia is accurate, whole, and has a truly neutral point of view.

Students for Victory in Iraq is launching the Iraq Wiki Truth Project to address these problems on Wikipedia and improve the quality of the information that the encyclopedia site provides to its users. Participants in the project will adopt or create a page about an Iraq-related subject, update and maintain the page according to Wikipedia's standards, and make sure that there is a neutral point of view, and that information on military actions, reconciliation, and success in Iraq is not overshadowed by cherry-picked stories and defeatist propaganda. If you wish to participate, please visit the Iraq Wiki Truth Project's page here.

Project Letters From Home

Jim C of ThinkingRight recently started a project called Project Letters from Home which has the goal of providing a letter of support from home to every single member of the 1st Battalion 1st Marine Regiment. Jim has done a good job of publicizing his project around the blogosphere, but as of August 14th he had 840 letters left to collect before meeting his goal.

We need to write to these men and women and spread the word about the project to as many people as we can. Send your letters of appreciation and support to letters@thinking-right.com and be sure to put 'letters from home' in the subject line. After you have sent your letter, please e-mail us at students4victory@gmail.com to let us know! Thanks to all of you for your continued support of our fighting men and women.