WASHINGTON – With U.S. war planes and troops poised for combat with Iraq, peace forces vowed to continue the fight against war. Win Without War, a coalition of religious, community, and equal rights organizations, sharply condemned George W. Bush’s preemptive attack on Iraq and urged their millions of members to mobilize for peace.

“Win Without War remains steadfastly opposed to the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack and the reckless use of military power,” declared WWW National Director Tom Andrews, reading from a WWW statement during a crowded news conference in the National Press Club, March 19. Andrews, a former congressman from Maine, was joined by Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, and Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders as well as leaders of women’s equality and community organizations. “It is only through respect for international law, our international allies, and the United Nations that we can hope to successfully address our most serious international challenges including terrorism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, North Korea ...,” the statement said.

Hailing the world peace movement, Andrews said, “We have an enormous amount of momentum, a very strong base across this country. This is a powerful force across this country to defeat this first-strike doctrine.”

The coalition stressed that it supports U.S. service personnel and urged peace activists to contact soldiers through “Operation Dear Abby” available at

winwithoutwar.org. “We hope and pray for their safe return as we hope and pray for the innocent men, women and children of Iraq,” the statement said.

Mary Ellen McNish, speaking for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, reported that AFSC and other humanitarian groups had met with Pentagon officials to offer help in aiding to 11 million Iraqis who will lack food and clean water in the first days of the war. But Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld made clear that any relief “must be a ‘force enhancer,’” she charged. “Our answer is, absolutely not!” All humanitarian relief agencies must be neutral, she said.

Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center said the peace sentiment among Jewish people is being mobilized against the war with a full page ad in the New York Times, March 20 against Bush’s invasion.

The Win Without War statement notes, “Unlike the Gulf War of 1991 where our allies paid for 90 percent of its cost, Americans will now be required to shoulder the burden of this unnecessary war – a price that will drive up our already skyrocketing deficit and put yet more pressure on our fragile economy.”

Jeff Blum, executive director of U.S. Action, said his group is also actively participating in the Fair Taxes For All Campaign. “It’s outrageous we are going to war and they aren’t telling us how much it will cost,” Blum told the World. “Are we going to give each millionaire a $90,000 tax cut or are we going to fund Medicare? Are we giving $90,000 to each millionaire and at the same time slashing veterans’ benefits by $15 billion? Are we going to give $90,000 to each millionaire while Bush’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ is woefully underfunded?”

On March 17, three dozen anti-war demonstrators were arrested on the U.S. Capitol grounds demanding that Congress break its silence on the war. Republican majority leaders have limited Congress’ role to banning french fries in Capitol dining halls. While most lawmakers fell in line behind Bush after his televised ultimatum that same day, some lawmakers spoke out sharply against the war.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif), flanked by labor and religious leaders, told a news conference in her Oakland office, “The best way to support our troops is not to put them in harms way. This is just the beginning. Which country is next? Iran? Syria? Where does this policy of preemption take us?” Her news conference was one of several coordinated by members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) told Newhouse News Service, “In the Black community all over America there is an anti-war sentiment.” Standing beside him was Illinois State Sen. Mickey Hendon, who said, “My constituents think it’s a war for oil, a war for control, to show superiority, and that’s wrong. It’s a way to distract us from the economy and the deterioration of the American way of life under President Bush.”

Meanwhile, 52 California legislators signed a statement of opposition to the war “without a formal resolution by the United Nations Security Council and a declaration of war by the Congress of the United States.” The legislators cited “a lack of credible evidence to convince other nations” that war is justified.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), who voted for the war resolution last November, told delegates to a meeting of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), “I’m saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war. I’m saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn’t create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical to our country.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Originally published by the People’s Weekly World
www.pww.org

Hi,
First, I am utterly against this war. Yesterday I participated in the walk-out at Cal State Northridge and marched around Old Town that night in Pasadena.

But I do have a question. Obviously, Hussein really is a tyrant who has oppressed his people for years. (Why the US wasn't so interested in intervening when he gassed the Kurds is curious) but what would a peaceful solution to this problem be? Some kind of indictment? Would that have to come from within his own regime? What about the up and coming International Criminal Court? Not that Bush has been crazy about that either.

I know that sanctions only hurt his own people and that as far as weapons, the inspectors seem to be saying that they were doing good if not slow and tedious work.

Responses would be appreciated. I have not heard many articulate responses to this question. Thanks.

73% of Americans support this war. Many more support it than not. So go demonstrate, practice free speech, wave your banners, and know that 3 out of 4 people disagree with you.

You are the minority here.

Restructure the UN (and move it out of the US) so that it is an effective international
body rather than an ineffectual institution with no guts to regulate the US.
Get an new chair (Kofi Annan has shown his weakness).
Put together a stronger body that is as willing to hold the US and Israel accountable
for their actions as they are for Iraq.

Or, create a new international body based on the geneva convention and other
international laws. Do away with the ICC laws that exempt US forces from being
charged with war crimes. Bring Saddam and the Bush cabinet before the council and
send them both to the Hague.

In some sense Saddam is an agent of the US, going back to the reagan and bush-daddy
regimes, deals with Dick Cheney and Halliburton, meeting with rumsfield, etc.
so if Saddam has to go, so does bush and everything affiliated with him.

We can't allow Saddam to get away, but more importantly, we can't allow the bush
administration to turn the US into the Fourth Reich.

polls, smolls

polls are based on selective demographic samples, for instance the gallup
polls are based on only 738 respondents. the nielson ratings system is based
on only 800 respondents (who then decide what is the top rated programs
on TV and people get brainwashed and gravitate towards them).

get a clue, polls don't mean shit.

look at the numbers that are suggested by the images on television and the
internet. the only institution besides the government that is really supporting
pro-war sentiment is the Clear Channel corporation that owns radio stations
in all the major urban markets. But even with that edge, the anti-war movement
has still succeeded in garnering unimagined support.

the minority in this case is bush, blair, and that dude from Spain. aside from
the useless coalition of the coerced, I mean willing, the rest of the world is against
them including their own populations.

the reason why the war was stymied at first, aside from the UN situation, is because
the anti-war movement is making an impact...and it will grow

That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The left will continue to alientate themselves to the fringes and prove they cannot have a cohesive argument about anything if they continue to make retarded equivalencies between the U.S. administration and Nazis.

Do you know anything about the UN? Do you know who heads the UN Commission on Human Rights? What makes you think that some other "international world order" would be any better?

Idealism is noble, but you obviously know nothing of history... or reality.

Don't believe your own hype.

You people for "peace" for the Iraqi people are morons. Here's is your proof. And it will ONLY GET BIGGER. Are you starting to feel stupid yet?

"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"


U.S. Marines Rip Down Saddam Portraits
1 hour, 5 minutes ago

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press Writer

Milling crowds of men and boys watched as the Marines attached ropes on the front of their Jeeps to one portrait and then backed up, peeling the Iraqi leader's black-and-white metal image off a frame. Some locals briefly joined Maj. David "Bull" Gurfein in a new cheer.


"Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis!" Gurfein yelled, pumping his fist in the air.


"We wanted to send a message that Saddam is done," said Gurfein, a New York native in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "People are scared to show a lot of emotion. That's why we wanted to show them this time we're here, and Saddam is done."


The Marines arrived in Safwan, just across the Kuwait border, after Cobra attack helicopters, attack jets, tanks, 155 mm howitzers and sharpshooters cleared the way along Route 80, the main road into Iraq (news - web sites).


Safwan, 375 miles south of Baghdad, is a poor, dirty, wrecked town pocked by shrapnel from the last Gulf war (news - web sites). Iraqi forces in the area sporadically fired mortars and guns for hours Thursday and Friday. Most townspeople hid, although residents brought forth a wounded little girl, her palm bleeding after the new fighting. Another man said his wife was shot in the leg by the Americans.


A few men and boys ventured out, putting makeshift white flags on their pickup trucks or waving white T-shirts out truck windows.


"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."


Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"


Many others in the starving town just patted their stomachs and raised their hands, begging for food.


A man identifying himself only as Abdullah welcomed the arrival of the U.S. troops: "Saddam Hussein is no good. Saddam Hussein a butcher."


An old woman shrouded in black — one of the very few women outside — knelt toward the feet of Americans, embracing an American woman. A younger man with her pulled her away, giving her a warning sign by sliding his finger across his throat.


In 1991, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died after prematurely celebrating what they believed was their liberation from Saddam after the Gulf War. Some even pulled down a few pictures of Saddam then — only to be killed by Iraqi forces.


Gurfein playfully traded pats with a disabled man and turned down a dinner invitation from townspeople.


"Friend, friend," he told them in Arabic learned in the first Gulf War.


"We stopped in Kuwait that time," he said. "We were all ready to come up there then, and we never did."


The townspeople seemed grateful this time.


"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"

Whether you accept it, or continue to live in your
fantasy world, either way you ARE in the minority.

Of course polls don't mean jack shit, that is whenever
the numbers they show are stacked AGAINST you. If
the numbers don't show results that YOU like, then
they're obviously skewed. Just because 100% of the
people you associate with are anti-war, doesn't mean
the ratio is the same in the rest of the real world.

Get your facts straight, the number of people that
Gallup surveys varies from poll to poll. Sometimes
well over 1,000 people are questioned, and the ONLY
selectivity involved is that adults over 18 are polled. It
also hurts your argument when other organizations,
completely independent of Gallup, do their own
surveys and come up with EXTREMELY similar numbers.

As far as the Coalition of the Willing. It does not, by far
consist only of Bush, Blair, and "that dude from Spain"
who's name is Jose Aznar. You honestly think the
entire rest of the world is against us? Explain how the
list of countries that have publicly pledged their
support has grown to at least 30?

Afghanistan
Albania
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bulgaria
Colombia
the Czech Republic
Denmark
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Georgia
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Japan
Korea
Latvia
Lithuania
Macedonia
the Netherlands
Nicaragua
the Philippines
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Spain
Turkey
the United Kingdom
Uzbekistan

Hardly looks like opposition from the rest of the world to me.

I'll fully admit, it DOES look, at first glance, like the anti-
war group is in the majority. But that's only because
they are the ones making such a scene and getting
the media attention. The people who support this war
effort aren't the ones blocking traffic on major Chicago
roadways, thus garnering media attention.

A vocal minority does not constitute a majority.

The New X
by The New X • Thursday March 20, 2003 Thut 04:33 PM



the fear that Saddam will attack the US with WMD shows how PARANOID americans are.

they don't really know why he will attack
they just know he will

"we don't know what a nigger is, but we're just gonna hate 'em anyway"

AMERICAN HYPOCRISY

TO ANY PRO-WAR ADVOCATE
I DARE YOU TO REPLY TO THIS:

The US government supported Saddam during his most murderous years. They supplied him with WMD and the technology to make his own WMD. EVEN THOUGH HE WAS A KNOWN TYRANT. Why? So that he would use them on the Iranians. Even after Halabja in 1988, the US government CONTINUED to support him.

Now in the year 2003 (whether it is morally just or not), Saddam no longer wishes to play into US global strategy. So he is ALL OF A SUDDEN branded a TYRANT ------ EVEN THOUGH HE WAS A MURDEROUS TYRANT ALL THE YEARS THE US SUPPORTED HIM!

Isn't it hypocritical that although he was even more murderous back then, he was considered an ALLY and FRIEND OF AMERICA simply because he was killing Iranians (if 5,000 kurds happened to be gassed in a single attack thats no big deal). Now he's still murderous but now the US actually acknowledges that he is a tyrant. Imagine if he was still following US wishes by fighting with Iraq, would the US be calling him a TYRANT? I DON'T THINK SO.

HYPOCRISY HYPOCRISY HYPOCRISY.

Until the US apologizes to the victims of Saddam terror DURING THE YEARS THAT THEY SUPPORTED HIM, this war will only be about US PARANOIA and its attempts at gaining a FALSE sense of security.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

war advocates only want to see sand nigger blood being spilled. they try to improve the body count
2,500 Americans (WTC) < 100,000 Sand Niggers.

So they can feel better about themselves and feel as if they "won" the overall battle. Their oh so precious American pride was hurt on 9/11 and now they seek to get it back by killing sand niggers left rite and center

(basically this is the whole starship troopers scenario)

OH YEAH BTW

that list of countries is YET just another example of how Bush plays on the ignorance of the American people. since they just believe anything he says, he neglected to mention several things.


First of all, some of those countries are only in the POST-WAR coalition. Not all of them support war.

second, countries were offered economic aid packages in return for their support.

third, countries who would not support the US would have had their existing US aid halted.


again this is not a conspiracy theory. i read on the news that japan was a post-war coalition member. so i bothered to check news sources and found out the above. americans, you need to put aside your hamburgers, fries and ford pickups. pick up newspapers and start reading. learn to read even. and don;t watch abc,fox or cbs or ne of that american crap. watch BBC. just pure facts. no "patrotic american cheesy melodrama bullshit"

stop war http://www.outwar.com/page.php?x=490159

What the heck was the point of the ICC in the first place if you were allowed to exempt yourself from it?

(mostly rhetorical)

Don't ask about the dead children. Don't tell anyone about it.

The children, of course, i forgot. If i'm not mistaken bush has made apoint to kill children. I'm pretty sure i heard that. He hates children and despots, but, children first. Countries should never go to war if the life of one child is at stake. I would rather have hitler killing all non-whites than have the death of one child on my hands. I would rather be assimilated into any cause rather than fighting for my life. This war is good though right? we forgot to take all the oil when we conquered iraq the first time. So we'll just steal it all now and it should be no problem. Still i don't know. Even though saddam signed a treaty in 91 and then defied every single term of that agreement i don't think we should do anything. I think it would be a good move for america to allow every nation to flout anything they come to an agreement to. Thats a good way to live. No war ever! rape me and abuse me please. I think maybe the muslims have a point. I would love to put my bitch in veil and beat her ass when dinner isn't good and hot. Plus she reads to much and should be more concerned with my loins. Religion should be life. die infidels. I have to go because saddam wants to put me in his nitric acid drip room for thinking. See you in shangrlai and don't touch my virgins

Earth to Blibber, or is that Blabber?

Because someone in authority says they are doing something for moral reasons does not make it true.

And you are an idiot for parroting the old "Hussein = Hitler" nonsense. You Freepers are becoming too inbred. You have been slapping each other on the back and self congratulating so long that you have come to believe your own nonsense.

Other than that your ignorance is on such obvious display that you charicature yourself without even realizing it. The heigth of ignorance.

I expected more than your standard "Your an idiot" diatribe. I know i'm dumb because i don't agree with you. You know far right and far left are the same thing right? the "warmongers" are the same as the "no war ever" . You will never have an impact and it's apparent with how easy you throw around the idiot card. I'm not an idiot, i'm rather in touch with whars going on. But have a good time on this board doing nothing. I support you and your uselessness. Meet me somewere and call me an idiot toughperson. You never would because you are a non-entity and you always will be. write me back we'll set it up.

Q. What's the difference between a truck load of
dead American or Iraqi babies and a truck load of marbles?
A. You can't unload marbles with a pitch fork. (giggle-snort)

Thank you for your support.

These are Iraqi soldiers lining up to welcome the US Marines into Basra. Look at the photo.

Why is it that you anti-war dorks refuse to admit that you've been wrong all along. Open your eyes. Look at the facts. Stop ingesting Pacifica Radio pablum for a change.