[1945] in peace2
Demonstration surrounding Bush visit THIS FRIDAY (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rebecca Hurwitz)
Tue Oct 1 14:18:11 2002
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 14:17:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: Rebecca Hurwitz <beckyh@MIT.EDU>
To: <peace-announce@mit.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.30L.0210011417350.4302-100000@scrubbing-bubbles.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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This coming Friday, October 4th, President Bush will be visiting Boston
for a Republican fund-raising benefit. A group of activist organizations
in Boston have organized a march to protest his plans for a war against
Iraq. We would very much appreciate your support and presence at the
demonstration. Please forward this message to anyone who might be
interested in joining us.
--------------------------------------
TIME: Friday October 4, 2002 at 6:00PM
PLACE: The Old Northern Avenue Bridge. This is on Atlantic Ave. between
the Aquarium Blue Line stop and the South Station Red Line stop on the
T. From there we will walk to the Seaport Hotel where Bush is speaking.
IN CASE OF LAST MINUTE CHANGES TO BUSH'S SCHEDULE, please visit
http://www.justicewithpeace.org on Friday.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: You can simply show up for the march, adding to our
numbers and potentially drawing more press attention. If you like, you
can also bring a sign to carry. Some slogans that get our message
across:
INSPECTIONS NOT WAR
EARTH TO BUSH - NO WAR
WAR IS TERRORISM
WAR WITHOUT END? NOT IN OUR NAME
INTERNATIONAL LAW, NOT UNILATERAL WAR
We want to be clear that we bear no sympathy for Saddam Hussein and his
regime, and we accept the possibility that he may be hiding weapons of
mass destruction. Nonetheless, we believe that the United States must
stand upon moral principle and international law in our dealings with
Iraq.
Reasons to oppose the war:
*There is no proven connection whatsoever between Al Qaeda and Saddam
Hussein. A war on Iraq would only distract us from the war on
terrorism. In fact, Stephen Walt (Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of
Government) suggests that an attack on Iraq could actually drive Saddam
and organizations like Al Qaeda to cooperate more closely against the
common foe of the U.S.
*Attacking Saddam before he has taken any military action against us, and
without support from the international community, sets a very dangerous
example. If India were, for example, to follow the U.S. lead, they could
bomb Pakistan at will.
*A unilateral action (unilateral is something the U.S. does without
support from the U.N.) shows blatant disregard for International Law and
will hurt our relationships with important allies such as France,
Germany, and Russia. This atmosphere of distrust will hurt our
collaborative efforts to curb terrorism and violence in other parts of
the world.
*War is a very serious thing, involving the loss of life and liberty of
human beings. We should no enter any war unless we trust that our
elected officials are making principled decisions and doing what’s
right for America and world peace. The Bush administration is very
difficult to trust. Cheney and Bush would both make a great deal of
money by gaining control of Iraqi oil, and this motivates them to pursue
“regime change” (overthrow Saddam) instead of following
international law. Both Cheney and Bush have also been involved in
corporate accounting scandals, and it is possible that they are creating
a war to distract attention from themselves.
*War is enormously expensive. It is estimated that an attack on Iraq
would cost $50-200 billion. Given our current economic slump and the
desperate under-funding of education and other domestic social services,
our country can not afford this kind of expense.
*Even if our main concern were national security, this money would be
better and more peacefully spent by buying up weapons of mass destruction
from the black market so that Saddam can not gain access to radioactive
material and other important components.
*Many Arab countries have repeatedly spoken to American officials,
warning that US invading Iraq would mobilize the Arab countries against
America. This really could be the escalation into global war that Osama
Bin Laden was hoping for.
