Letter to President Bush rejects war with Iraq
18 March 2003
Letter to President Bush rejects war with Iraq
PARTNERS FOR PEACE
1250 4TH STREET S.W.
WASHINGTON DC 20024
March 18, 2003
President George W. Bush
White House
Washington DC 20024
Dear Mr. President:
I am opposed to the war you propose to launch against Iraq. I am opposed to it now, before the war is launched and I will continue to be opposed to it after you take the United States to war. I have very good reasons for opposing it and your implication that Americans who oppose your policies are somehow unpatriotic is reprehensible.
The reasons I am opposed to this pre-emptive war now will still be valid reasons for opposing it after you start it.
Launching this war is an aggressive, hostile act incompatible with American standards and values.
War will be an ineffective instrument to effect a change to a democratic form of government in Iraq.
Contrary to your constant refrain that Iraq poses a real and current threat to the United States, there is no evidence to support that assertion. Indeed, the CIA has suggested precisely the opposite. The threat will emerge if we attack Iraq.
If there were a clear and immediate threat to the United States there are much more effective alternatives to a pre-emptive strike on Iraq:
1. Increase the inspection force to a thousand rather than hundreds.
2. Maintain an effective blockade on Iraq for materials that could allow Iraq to develop WMDs.
3. Block financial activity by Saddam and escrow funds so he would be prevented from making any unauthorized purchases.
4. Create a United Nations Truce Supervision Organization to provide protection to Iraqis during any transition period if a regime change occurs.
5. Conduct multinational talks to explore options without the threat of ignoring world opinion if it conflicts with US ideas.
The consequences of this pre-emptive war of aggression are too terrible to contemplate:
1. The “shock and awe” strategy will mean that an estimated 500,000 Iraqi lives will be lost at a minimum. This half a million lives will include not just miliary personnel but innocent civilians. Since 50% of the population is under the age of 15 this would mean that a quarter of a million children could be victims.
2. The environmental disaster will be cataclysmic. We saw the burning Kuwaiti oil fields in the first Gulf War. This time it is likely that Saddam will fire Iraq’s own wells, many times the number in Kuwait, creating a smoke cloud that could cover much of the neighboring areas.
3. The political consequences for many relatively fragile regimes in the Arab world will be chaos and would assure large gains by the most extreme elements in these societies. The alienation of the Arab and Muslim countries will be only the tip of the iceberg. We will have turned our back on our own heritage and principles, and will no longer have any respect from even former friends. We will be handing the enemies of freedom a power beyond their wildest dreams.
All of these consequences are dire enough to make your rush to war foolhardy. But worst of all is the damage to the very fabric of our nation.
Domestically we have already seen the erosion of our freedom. The Patriot Act is clearly unconstitutional but in the current atmosphere of fear and hate nurtured by your administration the implications of the act will become even more devastating to the basic principles of civil liberties.
Even torture is now being touted by American officials as a necessary tool to use on “suspected” individuals. We are abandoning our most precious and time-honored principles. Furthermore, our use of torture will create the very conditions most likely to lead to more anger and terrorism directed to us and place our soldiers in the unenviable position of being subjected to torture.
The cost of this adventure cannot even be estimated by this Administration. When you, President Bush, assumed the office there was a projection of a $5.6 trillion surplus over the next ten years. Without calculating any costs for this war you propose, we now have a projection of a $1.8 trillion DEFICIT. Where did this money go? Clearly the deficit will be massively higher than $1.8 trillion when the costs of the war are included. We as a nation face not only a recession but a depression with no hope in sight. And this is coming at a time when our own society is in desperate straits with schools shortening their school year because of lack of funds, school lunch programs abandoned, our elderly citizens finding it necessary to choose between food and medicine, and our highways and community infrastructures forced to delay indefinitely urgently needed repair and replacement.
I am 77 years old and have never seen such a dire future for our society and its treasured values. Every American must be informed about the real dangers we face – not the dangers from outside but the dangers from inside our country. Your policies, clearly enunciated by your Attorney General, constitute the greatest threat to life and liberty I have seen in my lifetime, and I lived through the McCarthy hearings!
I find the words of John Brady Kiesling in his letter of resignation from the Foreign Service the most effective way to express my views:
“We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners. Even where our aims were not in question, our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle East, and in whose image and interests. Have we indeed become blind, as Russia is blind in Chechnya, as Israel is blind in the Occupied Territories, to our own advice, that overwhelming military power is not the answer to terrorism? After the shambles of post-war Iraq joins the shambles in Grozny and Ramallah, it will be a brave foreigner who forms ranks with Micronesia to follow where we lead.”
I urge you, President Bush, to heed the warnings coming from informed and patriotic Americans and adopt other means to seek security for not only Americans but for our brothers and sisters around the world as diverse as their societies may be.
This is truly your last chance to avoid being the architect of disaster for our beloved country.
Sincerely,
Jerri Bird
President and Founder of Partners for Peace
(And wife of a retired Foreign Service Officer
with long service in the Middle East)
