|
NO WAR WITH IRAQ! A Statement by the US Fellowship of Reconciliation August 16, 2002 The imminent possibility of a new war threatens the people of Iraq and the world. It is a war planned by the United States that would continue more than twelve years of economic and military violence that has decimated the Iraqi economy and physical infrastructure. Despite the opposition of the international community, including many of America’s European political allies, and ambivalent voices within the Bush administration itself, it is clear that militaristic, pro-war advocates in the administration are planning a massive, unilateral attack against Iraq. Such attacks would involve American air, naval, and ground forces and would certainly result in massive civilian and military casualties, including US military casualties that would far exceed the death toll of the last Gulf War. These preparations for new war and aggression against Iraq take place in the context of continued economic sanctions that have already killed more than one million Iraqi civilians since 1990. They take place despite the efforts made by the United Nations and other international bodies to negotiate the resumption of weapons inspections in Iraq within the framework of international law and respect for the human rights of the Iraqi people. This renewed warfare is planned even though Iraq has made no threat to attack the United States, and has not been proven to be in complicity with those who did so last September 11th. This threat of war takes place without the permission of the United States Congress, the Security Council of the United Nations, and certainly without the consent of the international community dedicated to conflict resolution through nonviolent means. This threat of war violates all standards of international law. And more importantly, it violates the basic right of the Iraqi people, and all people, to live in peace and security. This call for new war is an affront to the world community and to respect for human life. It guarantees huge profits for the war machine at the expense of the death and suffering of untold people in the Middle East region and the United States. It is motivated not by the stated desire for "democracy" in Iraq, but by the greed of an economic system driven by profit and the consumption and control of natural resources all around the globe. The development of alternative sources of energy, not war, should be a top priority of U.S. policy makers.
A new war against Iraq cannot, and must not, happen. And the Fellowship of Reconciliation calls on the global community and upon all those who respect the rule of law over the rule of force, to do everything possible to nonviolently oppose it. Instead of more U.S. bombs and missiles dropped on their villages and cities, we believe that the Iraqi people need clean water, food, electricity, medicines, housing, and the basic implements of civilized life denied to them by more than decade of sanctions. Instead of threatening war, we call upon the U.S., and the United Nations, to welcome Iraq back into full membership in the international community, and to end the years of economic warfare that have crippled Iraq’s population while creating no meaningful change in its government. Such a change in international policy must take place within the context of our continued call for disarmament in the Middle East region and throughout the world. And in place of security based on coercion and intimidation, we call upon the responsible powers in the government of the United States to harness our collective and creative power to resolve international disputes without resorting to massive violence. We can best assure the elimination of any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq--real or imagined--by working for disarmament throughout the Middle East as well as in this country. The government of the United States represents itself as a government "of, by and for the people". The people therefore must speak out, organize, and oppose the violence of renewed war. And we demand that our resources, and our children, will not be sacrificed to corporate greed nor to the machinery of the war system. War will never guarantee the removal of weapons of mass destruction from any place in our world; indeed, the threat of war is a weapon of destruction itself. It is only when threats are replaced by principled negotiations, and violence is replaced by nonviolence, that the people of Iraq, and the U.S., will live in greater security, dignity, and harmony with each other and the world. Neither the security of the United States nor the security of Iraq can be enhanced by violence. War is not the answer. We must join together, in the spirit of nonviolent transformation, to make sure that war in the new millennium will cease to be a possibility. Contact: Ibrahim Abdil-Mu’id Ramey(disarm@forusa.org) ©2002 Fellowship of Reconciliation |