Opposing This War, but Not All Wars
To the Editor:
In "Dilemma's Definition: The Left and Iraq," (Arts pages, April 16), you write that The Nation opposed the war in Iraq because many of its writers are "unreconstructed pacifists."
Pacifism is an honorable tradition, and its adherents can speak for themselves. But that is not the position of The Nation or the reason for our opposition to the war.
The Nation does believe that America has the right to act in self-defense. We supported, for example, the use of qualified military force in Afghanistan in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The Nation opposed the war against Iraq, and we continue to oppose the premises upon which the war was based, but for very different reasons.
We believe that, by attacking a nation that did not attack us and that posed neither an immediate threat to us nor to international peace and security, the administration violated the United Nations Charter, dealt a potentially destabilizing blow to global order and weakened the authority of the United Nations and international law.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL Editor, The Nation New York, April 16, 2003
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/19/opinion/L19LEFT.html>
Carl
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