Fwd: Please sign on to this anti-war statement

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sun Dec 15 13:23:23 PST 2002


From: DavidMcR at aol.com Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 00:03:45 EST Subject: Please sign on to this anti-war statement

Dear Friend,

Please join Barbara Ehrenreich, Adolph Reed, Michael Albert, Rabbi

Michael Lerner, Naomi Weisstein, Edward Said, Stephen Shalom, Katha

Pollitt, John Leonard, Sue Leonard, James Weinstein, Daniel Ellsberg,

Cornel West, Matthew Rothschild, Ros Petchesky, Howard Zinn and Robin D.G.

Kelley in signing this anti-war statement from the Campaign for Peace and

Democracy (See below for the list of initial signers and for how to add

your name.)

Thank you,

Joanne Landy, Thomas Harrison, Jennifer Scarlott, Co-Directors, CPD

Please forward this statement and circulate it widely.

WE OPPOSE BOTH SADDAM HUSSEIN AND THE U.S. WAR ON IRAQ:

A CALL FOR A NEW, DEMOCRATIC U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

We oppose the impending U.S.-led war on Iraq, which threatens to

inflict vast suffering and destruction, while exacerbating rather than

resolving threats to regional and global peace. Saddam Hussein is a tyrant

who should be removed from power, both for the good of the Iraqi people and

for the security of neighboring countries. However, it is up to the Iraqi

people themselves to oust Saddam Hussein, dismantle his police state

regime, and democratize their country. People in the United States can be

of immense help in this effort--not by supporting military intervention,

but by building a strong peace movement and working to ensure that our

government pursues a consistently democratic and just foreign policy.

We do not believe that the goal of the approaching war against

Iraq is to bring democracy to the Iraqis, nor that it will produce this

result. Instead, the Bush Administration's aim is to expand and solidify

U.S. predominance in the Middle East, at the cost of tens of thousands of

civilian lives if necessary. This war is about U.S. political, military and

economic power, about seizing control of oilfields and about strengthening

the United States as the enforcer of an inhumane global status quo. That is

why we are opposed to war against Iraq, whether waged unilaterally by

Washington or by the UN Security Council, unaccountable to the UN General

Assembly and bullied and bribed into endorsing the war.

The U.S. military may have the ability to destroy Saddam Hussein,

but the United States cannot promote democracy in the Muslim world and

peace in the Middle East, nor can it deal with the threat posed to all of

us by terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda, and by weapons of mass

destruction, by pursuing its current policies. Indeed, the U.S. could

address these problems only by doing the opposite of what it is doing today

-- that is, by:

-Renouncing the use of military intervention to extend and consolidate U.S.

imperial power, and withdrawing U.S. troops from the Middle East.

-Ending its support for corrupt and authoritarian regimes, e.g. Saudi

Arabia, the Gulf states and Egypt.

-Opposing, and ending U.S. complicity in, all forms of terrorism worldwide

-- not just by Al Qaeda, Palestinian suicide bombers and Chechen hostage

takers, but also by Colombian paramilitaries, the Israeli military in the

Occupied Territories and Russian counterinsurgency forces in Chechnya.

-Ending the cruel sanctions on Iraq, which inflict massive harm on the

civilian population.

-Supporting the right of national self-determination for all peoples in the

Middle East, including the Kurds, Palestinians and Israeli Jews. Ending

one-sided support for Israel in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

-Taking unilateral steps toward renouncing weapons of mass destruction,

including nuclear weapons, and vigorously promoting international

disarmament treaties.

-Abandoning IMF/World Bank economic policies that bring mass misery to

people in large parts of the world. Initiating a major foreign aid program

directed at popular rather than corporate needs.

A U.S. government that carried out these policies would be in a

position to honestly and consistently foster democracy in the Middle East

and elsewhere. It could encourage democratic forces (not unrepresentative

cliques, but genuinely popular parties and movements) in Iraq, Iran and

Syria, as well as Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and

Turkey. Some of these forces exist today, others have yet to arise, but all

would flower if nurtured by a new U.S. foreign policy.

These initiatives, taken together, would constitute a truly

democratic foreign policy. Only such a policy could begin to reverse the

mistrust and outright hatred felt by so much of the world's population

toward the U.S. At the same time, it would weaken the power of

dictatorships and the appeal of terrorism and reactionary religious

fundamentalism. Though nothing the United States can do would decisively

undermine these elements right away, over time a new U.S. foreign policy

would drastically undercut their power and influence.

The Administration's frantic and flagrantly dishonest efforts to

portray Saddam Hussein as an imminent military threat to people in this

country and to the inhabitants of other Middle Eastern countries lack

credibility. Saddam Hussein is a killer and serial aggressor who would

doubtless like nothing better than to wreak vengeance on the U.S. and to

dominate the Gulf Region. But there is no reason to believe he is suicidal

or insane. Considerable evidence suggests that Saddam Hussein is much

weaker militarily than he was before the Gulf War and that he is still some

distance from being able to manufacture nuclear weapons. But most

important, unlike Al Qaeda, he has a state and a position of power to

protect; he knows that any Iraqi act of aggression now against the U.S. or

his neighbors would bring about his total destruction. As even CIA Director

George Tenet has pointed out, it is precisely the certainty of a war to the

finish against his regime that would provide Saddam Hussein with the

incentive he now lacks to use whatever weapons he has against the U.S. and

its allies.

Weapons of mass destruction endanger us all and must be

eliminated. But a war against Iraq is not the answer. War threatens massive

harm to Iraqi civilians, will add to the ranks of terrorists throughout the

Muslim world, and will encourage international bullies to pursue further

acts of aggression. Everyone is legitimately concerned about terrorism;

however, the path to genuine security involves promoting democracy, social

justice and respect for the right of self-determination, along with

disarmament, weapons-free-zones, and inspections. Of all the countries in

the world, the United States possesses by far the most powerful arsenal of

weapons of mass destruction. If the U.S. were to initiate a democratic

foreign policy and take serious steps toward disarmament, it would be able

to encourage global disarmament as well as regional demilitarization in the

Middle East.

The Bush Administration has used the alleged Iraqi military danger

to justify an alarming new doctrine of preemptive war. In the National

Security Strategy, publicly released on September 20, 2002, the Bush

Administration asserted that the U.S. has the right to attack any country

that might be a potential threat, not merely in response to an act of

military aggression. Much of the world sees this doctrine for what it is:

the proclamation of an undisguised U.S. global imperium.

Ordinary Iraqis, and people everywhere, need to know that there is

another America, made up of those who both recognize the urgent need for

democratic change in the Middle East and reject our government's

militaristic and imperial foreign policy. By signing this statement we

declare our intention to work for a new democratic U.S. foreign policy.

That means helping to rein in the war-makers and building the most powerful

antiwar movement possible, and at the same time forging links of solidarity

and concrete support for democratic forces in Iraq and throughout the

Middle East.

We refuse to accept the inevitability of war on Iraq despite the

enormous military juggernaut that has been put in place, and we declare our

commitment to work with others in this country and abroad to avert it. And

if war should start, we will do all in our power to end it immediately.

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___Yes, please add my name to the Campaign for Peace and Democracy

statement "We Oppose Both Saddam Hussein And The U.S. War On Iraq: A Call

For A New, Democratic U.S. Foreign Policy." You may use my name when the

statement is published.

___I am sending a tax-deductible donation of $________to help disseminate

and publish the statement in publications such as The Nation, Z Magazine,

The Progressive, The New York Review of Books, In These Times and, if we

raise sufficient funds, The New York Times. I am sending my gift ____by

mail ____on line (see below).

TO ASSIST US IN ORGANIZING THE LIST OF SIGNERS, PLEASE GIVE US YOUR

INFORMATION IN THIS ORDER AND FORMAT:

First Line: Last name, comma, first name and middle name or initial if

applicable [e.g., Doe, Jane Q.]

Second Line: Organizational/ institutional affiliation or city (for

identification only) (pls be brief)

Third Line: E-mail address

Fourth Line: Telephone and amount of donation

Fifth Line: Street address

Only name and affiliation or city will be made public.

PLEASE INSERT INFORMATION HERE OR AT THE END OF THE MESSAGE

To sign on, please FORWARD this message to cpd at igc.org adding in the check

marks and additional requested information

Donations are tax-deductible. Make checks payable to Campaign for Peace and

Democracy or donate on line by setting up an account at www.paypal.com. If

giving through PayPal, your payment should be directed to cpd at igc.org

Mail to: Campaign for Peace and Democracy, POB 630245, Bronx, NY 10463

NOTE: We won't change the statement's wording without consulting the

signers, except that if full-scale war breaks out we will edit the text

accordingly--e.g. by removing adjectives such as "impending" and

"approaching" to describe the war.

A two-page ad with the names listed below will appear in the issue of The

Nation being mailed out on December 18 (cover date 1/6/03). The list of

signers will be updated periodically on the ZNet site www.zmag.org --check

it out!

List of signers in formation. Affiliations for identification only

Michael Albert, ZNet/Z Magazine

Stanley Aronowitz, Professional Staff Congress, AFT, NYC

Rosalyn Baxandall, SUNY at Old Westbury

Mel Bienenfeld, NYC

Richard J. Brown, MD- Physicians for a National Health Program-NY

C. Carr, Village Voice

Ramón Castellblanch, SF State Univ

Margaret W. Crane, The Write Formula

Richard Deats, Fellowship magazine

Melinda Downey, New Politics

Laura Lee Downs, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales

Karen Durbin, writer

Barbara Ehrenreich, writer

Daniel Ellsberg

Carlos R. Espinosa, architect

Sam Farber, Brooklyn Coll, CUNY

John Feffer, writer

Barry Finger, New Paltz NY

Thomas Harrison, Campaign for Peace and Democracy

Doug Henwood, Left Business Observer

Judith Hempfling

William F., Henning, Jr., CWA Local 1180

Michael Hirsch, New Politics

Marianne Jackson, Rescue Health Care NY

Julius and Phyllis Jacobson, New Politics

Robin D.G. Kelley, NYU

Joanne Landy, Campaign for Peace and Democracy

Jesse Lemisch, John Jay Coll of Criminal Justice, CUNY

John Leonard

Sue Leonard

Rabbi Michael Lerner, TIKKUN Magazine

Nelson Lichtenstein, UC Santa Barbara

Martha Livingston, SUNY Coll at Old Westbury

Betty Reid Mandell, Bridgewater State Coll

Marvin Mandell, Curry Coll

Selma Marks, NYC

David McReynolds, War Resisters League

Carol Miller, Public Health Activist

John M. Miller, War Resisters League

Ros Petchesky, WEDO (Women's Environment & Development Organization)

Katha Pollitt, The Nation

Omar Qureshi

Adolph Reed, Jr., New School Univ

Sonia Jaffe Robbins, Network of East-West Women

Leonard Rodberg, Queens Coll

Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive

Edward Said, Columbia Univ

Charles Scarlott, Tucson AZ

Jennifer Scarlott, Campaign for Peace and Democracy

Stephen R. Shalom, William Paterson Univ

Ann Snitow, Network of East-West Women

Sid and Sandy Socolar, NYC

Alan Sokal, New York University

Bernard Tuchman, NYC

Judith Podore Ward, NYC

Lois Weiner, New Jersey City Univ

James Weinstein, founding editor, In These Times

Naomi Weisstein, SUNY Buffalo

Cornel West, Princeton Univ

Reginald Wilson, American Council on Education

Arnold Jacob Wolf, Rabbi Emeritus, K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Congregation, Chicago

Kent Worcester, Marymount Manhattan College

Howard Zinn, historian

please forward please forward please forward please forward please

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