EDITORIAL
Stop the Slaughter,
Wage Peace and Justice
Defying an unprecedented worldwide peace movement, President Bush has
unleashed mass terror upon the people of Iraq. The cries of its people
pierce the hearts of a grieving world.
This is not a war. It is a slaughter.
A superpower is attacking a tiny country that is disarming! The attack
is as cowardly and illegal as it is devastating.
In less than 48 hours, the U.S. bombarded Iraq with over 3,000 bombs
and missiles, more than were dropped on that godforsaken country in the
entire Gulf War of 1991. The previous war massacred more than 100,000
Iraqis.
This one will bring even more death and destruction. The United Nations
estimates that the U.S. war will kill hundreds of thousands and will place
some 10 million Iraqi civilians at risk of hunger and disease needing
urgent help. We must not allow Washington to hide or dehumanize the victims
of war.
From the very origins of this country, its white, male rulers have had
a terrifying tendency to obliterate or subordinate peoples of color, at
home and abroad.
To what end? Oil, empire and a democracy of bomb craters filled with
the blood of innocents? Who will our arrogant president target next?--Iran,
Syria, North Korea, Venezuela? At home, who will be Attorney General John
Ashcroft's next victims?
Might does not make right. Bombs must not silence our demand for peace
and justice. We are all appalled, angry and devastated. But we have helped
to create a gigantic worldwide antiwar movement that is changing the face
of the earth. We must fight on to end the war as soon as possible and
save as many lives as can be saved.
This racist war of occupation must not weaken our resolve that only peace
and justice can prevent future wars and terrorism. We must build a powerful
peace movement capable of making this vision the policy of the whole country.
Dr. Robert Muller, a former assistant secretary general of the United
Nations, said days before the war started, "Never before in the history
of the world has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue
and conversation about the very legitimacy of war...We are not at war.
We, the world community, are waging peace."
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