[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Opposing the path of war

[Jay Mittenthal]

>Reply-To: "Not In Our Name" <nion at cloud9.net>
>From: "Not In Our Name" <nion at cloud9.net>
>To: "Jay Mittenthal" <mitten at life.uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Opposing the path of war
>Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 04:37:43 -0400
>Importance: Normal
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>Dear Jay Mittenthal,
>
>As we react to the events now taking place in the Iraq, it is important to 
>recognize and respect what many are experiencing, be it anger at the 
>carnage and our inability to stop it, grief for the innocent lives lost, 
>despair over the loss of American ideals and the erosion of freedoms for 
>all, or fear of what lies ahead.
>
>Yet now is not the time to recede into the sidelines, but to uphold the 
>courageous opposition and the important effect of the anti-war movement, 
>and to move forward with hope and boldness. We are now challenged to 
>transform what we have begun into something on-going; something that 
>stands for the principles as expressed in the NION statement of 
>conscience, raises awareness, works toward ending the violence, and 
>creates an alternative to the alienating policies being perpetuated on the 
>world stage.
>
>The statement of conscience came into being several months after September 
>11, 2001. As the first published statement criticizing the Bush 
>administration's "War on Terror" program, it has garnered the support of 
>tens of thousands of individuals throughout the world, and has been 
>printed in local towns across the nation. To date, it has been printed in 
>70 publications, nationally and internationally, translated into 18 
>languages, and its comprehensive analysis of the current administration's 
>dangerous path has sparked much debate. We want to thank all of the 
>signers and contributors to the statement of conscience for their generous 
>efforts; its influence has grown with each new signer.
>
>The NION statement has greatly affected the extent and content of the 
>opposition to the war. The statement says that: 1) this war is not about 
>terrorism or weapons of mass destruction, it's about the U.S. 
>consolidating global empire, 2) people must first and foremost take 
>responsibility for what their own government does, 3) we need to approach 
>these questions from the standpoint of the interests of people of whole 
>world, 4) the attack on dissent and civil liberties in the U.S. is part of 
>the empire program and is being introduced through an attack on 
>immigrants, and 5) people have to actively resist.
>
>Aspiring to the highest human ideals of justice and freedom, the statement 
>of conscience belies the media assumption that the majority of Americans 
>support the administration and its "coalition of the bribed and coerced" 
>in this invasion of Iraq.
>
>To reach out to the rest of the world, we recently published the statement 
>in two Arabic newspapers, Al-Ahram in Egypt and Al-Khaleej in the United 
>Arab Emirates. In doing this, we hope to raise awareness in the Arab world 
>about the extent of U.S. opposition to not only the war on Iraq but the 
>entire political trajectory of the U.S. government. We also want people in 
>the Middle East to distinguish between the American government and the 
>American people. We are now hoping to purchase an ad on the home page of 
>the web site of the Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera. People will be able to 
>click on the banner, and read the statement in Arabic.
>
>Please continue to let your voice be heard. The full outcome of this war 
>has yet to be seen, and right now the voices of reason and conscience need 
>to be stronger than ever. For links to activities and to publish the 
>statement in your own community, please visit our website, 
>http://www.nion.us. All our work is made possible through your 
>contributions. Please visit the following link to make a donation on line:
>
>http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/scripts/php/notInOurName/notinourname.html