Blessed are the Peacemakers

[Tarun]

BBC: US Peace Marches Draw Large Crowds

Sunday, 27 October, 2002, 01:27 GMT

 

Tens of thousands of people have marched in the US cities of Washington and San Francisco as part of a day of worldwide protests against a possible American-led war against Iraq.

 

Jesse Jackson "If we launch a pre-emptive strike, we will lose all moral authority... we must have a higher order than a one-bullet diplomacy."

 

A number of other US cities saw demonstrations, while protest rallies also took place in Mexico, Japan, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Belgium and Australia.

 

In the US, the protests are being hailed as some of the largest in the country since US citizens took to the streets in the 1960s and 1970s to protest the Vietnam war.

 

Waving banners and chanting slogans, the protesters called on the US president to abandon plans to topple the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, and to spend the billions of dollars needed for a military campaign on social programmes instead.

 

The US Congress has granted George W Bush the power to wage war on Iraq - with or without the approval of the United Nations.

 

Celebrity appeal

 

The protests took place as US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the protracted negotiations at the UN over the adoption of a resolution on Iraq must move forward; t the organisation was entering a key week and could not continue to hold a never-ending debate.

 

"It is time to bring the remaining issues to a head for resolution, if possible," he said.

 

"And if resolution is not possible, then let's come to that realisation and move forward."

 

The rally in Washington opened with speeches at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from celebrities such as musician Patti Smith and actress Susan Sarandon.

 

Palestinian and Moslem groups also attended the march, along with veteran civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

 

"If we launch a pre-emptive strike, we will lose all moral authority," he told the crowd.

 

"We must have a higher order than a one-bullet diplomacy." Jackson said.

 

Elsewhere, in San Francisco, around 5,000 people, including several Palestinian pressure groups, converged on City Hall to hear speeches.

 

Germany was the scene of some of Europe's largest protests, with more than 80 cities holding rallies.

 

The Federal Peace Committee, which helped organise the protests, told French news agency AFP that up to 10,000 people attended Berlin's rally.

 

Political manoeuvring

 

The marches come after an opinion poll conducted for the New York Times and CBS News earlier this month suggested that half of those questioned in the US were uneasy about the prospect of war with Iraq.

 

Supporters of the march also point to successful internet fund-raising and letter-signing efforts as signs of the support for their cause.

 

Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches and a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, said he remains optimistic that war can be avoided.

 

"I don't think that, just because the House and Senate voted, that the barn door is open and we're going to have war," he said.

 

The US is pressing the UN to accept its resolution on disarming Iraq.

 

But it is encountering resistance from Russia and France, who can both veto the resolution.

 

Mr Bush on Saturday reiterated his vow that the US would use force against Iraq if Saddam Hussein did not disarm, whether or not the UN supported such action.

 

"If the UN won't act, if Saddam Hussein won't disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him," he said.

 

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

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© : t r u t h o u t 2002

[Tarun]

Not one xatriya worldwide is in favor of bombing Bagdhad, not one. Only cowards, chincy cowards hiding behind closed doors even pressmen cannot enter, LESS THEY BE DISCOVERED. People who've never been closer to battle than watching it televised. People who know nothing about life itself. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. LOWER THAN TAMOGUN. BELOW ZERO.

===============

Human Shields Headed for Bagdhad by Andrew Cawthorne - Reuters

 

LONDON (Jan. 25) - Waving goodbye to families and denouncing "imperialist" warmongering, the first convoy of Western volunteers set out from London on double-decker buses on Saturday to act as "human shields" against any attack on Iraq.

 

About 50 volunteers, ranging from a 19-year-old factory worker to a 60-year-old former diplomat, formed the first in a series of convoys organisers say will take hundreds of anti-war activists to Iraq.

 

Dismissed by critics as naively playing into Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's hands, the volunteers plan to fan out to heavily populated areas of Baghdad and other parts of the country as a deterrent to Western bombing.

 

"Our strategy is potentially dangerous but that is the risk we must take in standing beside our brothers and sisters in Iraq," said former U.S. marine Ken Nichols, whose Human Shield Action Iraq group is coordinating the London departures.

 

"We have been inundated by volunteers. This is just the first wave. I am calling for 10,000 to get down there and stop this war," he told Reuters.

 

Saturday's convoy -- like others being planned for early February -- will travel across Europe, picking up more people on the way, loading provisions and stopping to promote their cause.

 

Nichols' group is one of several around the world whose aim is to mobilise peace activists as human shields in Iraq and show solidarity with Iraqi people in the face of a possible U.S.-led war against Saddam.

 

FORMER HOSTAGES

 

The campaign has upset some among the thousands of Westerners detained by Saddam to act as shields against attacks after his 1990 invasion of Kuwait and during the 1991 Gulf War.

 

They feel the volunteers do not appreciate the seriousness of what they are doing and are unaware of their past suffering.

 

"The majority went through hell on wheels," said Steve Brookes, who ran a support group for British victims. "Of the 1,800 or so British hostages, most suffered from some form of post-traumatic stress."

 

Volunteers from Nichols' group, mainly from Western nations but including some from Turkey and China, insist they are not going to support Saddam but to try to prevent the death of innocent people.

 

"When we arrive, we will work out where the bombing is most likely to be, where there would be most casualties, and we will go there. Our purpose is to protect civilians," 32-year-old lecturer Uzma Bashir, from Yorkshire in northern England, told Reuters.

 

Many have had trouble convincing their families of the importance of their mission.

 

"Nine out of 10 of the people going as human shields are more scared of what their mothers say than the bombs in Iraq," said Bashir, who plans to join a second convoy from London.

 

In the Muslim world, the main rallying point for would-be human shields is in Jordan. There, a campaign led by leftist parties and civic bodies is seeking 100,000 volunteers.

 

Baghdad has said it will receive the volunteers with open arms and help them decide where to place themselves.

 

Washington and London are trying to garner international support for possible military strikes over Saddam's alleged programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction.

01/25/03 08:38 ET

[Streetstraw]

Arundhati Roy calling live from Kerala, South India right now.

Her phone call was broadcast throughout both hemispheres, simulcast with SUNY Stonybrook WUSB 90.1

1.6 million reported gathered both in Barcelona & Rome

92% Spaniards want Peace, No Iraq Invasion, yet Madrid's politcians insist on backing Bush regime.

1ST AVE FLOODED WITH HUMANS FOR PEACE from UN up to 87St

We're talking about 10, 20, 50 MahA-kumbha Melas put together...

====================

LONDON (Feb. 15) - Anti-war protests Saturday drew hundreds of thousands of people in cities around the world - from London to Canberra - united in their opposition to a threatened U.S.-led strike against Iraq.

 

The British capital saw one of the largest marches for peace on a day of global protest - at least a million people, organizers claimed, although initial police estimates were about half that. They hoped to heap pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been Europe's biggest supporter of the tough U.S. policy.

 

''I feel they should take more time and find an alternative, and not see the only solution to the problem in bombarding the country,'' said Maria Harvey, 58, a child psychologist, who said she hadn't marched since the protests against the Gulf War in 1991.

 

There was another huge turnout in Rome, where many in the crowd displayed rainbow ''peace'' flags. Police offered no estimate, but organizers claimed 3 million people participated.

 

Hundreds of thousands marched through Berlin, backing a strong anti-war stance spearheaded by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Police estimated the crowd at between 300,000 and 500,000.

 

''We're not taking to the streets to demonstrate against the United States, or for Iraq. We're taking to the streets because we want a peaceful resolution of the Iraq conflict,'' said Michael Sommer, head of the German Federation of Unions.

 

In Syria, a nation on the front line if war comes, some 200,000 protesters marched through Damascus. In Bulgaria, Hungary, South Korea, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand, demonstrations attracted thousands, while the crowds were in the hundreds or less in Romania, Bosnia, Hong Kong, Indian-controlled Kashmir and Moscow.

 

Police estimated that 60,000 turned out in Oslo, Norway, 50,000 in bitter cold in Brussels, while about 35,000 gathered peacefully in frigid Stockholm.

 

Crowds were estimated at 10,000 in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, 5,000 in Capetown and 4,000 in Johannesburg in South Africa, 5,000 in Tokyo, 3,000 in Vienna and 2,000 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

''War is not a solution, war is a problem,'' Czech philosopher Erazim Kohak told a crowd of about 500 in Prague.

 

Anti-war activists hoped to draw 100,000 people to the streets in New York City later for a protest near the United Nations. Police were planning extensive security that included sharpshooters and radiation detectors.

 

In Baghdad, tens of thousands of Iraqis, many carrying Kalashnikovs, demonstrated across their country to support Saddam Hussein and denounce the United States.

 

''Our swords are out of their sheaths, ready for battle,'' read one of hundreds of banners carried by marchers along Palestine Street, a broad Baghdad avenue.

 

Many Iraqis hoisted giant pictures of Saddam and some burned American and Israeli flags, while in neighboring Damascus, protesters chanted anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli slogans as they marched to the People's Assembly.

 

Najjah Attar, a former Syrian cabinet minister, accused Washington of attempting to change the region's map. ''The U.S. wants to encroach upon our own norms, concepts and principles,'' she said in Damascus. ''They are reminding us of the Nazi and fascist times.''

 

Braving biting cold and snow flurries in Ukraine, some 2,000 people rallied in Kiev's central square. Anti-globalists led a peaceful ''Rock Against War'' protest joined by communists, socialists, Kurds and pacifists.

 

Natalya Mostenko, 45, was one of several people in Kiev carrying a portrait of Saddam. ''He opposes American dictatorship and so do I,'' she said.

 

In the Bosnian city of Mostar, about a hundred Muslims and Croats united for an anti-war protest - the first such cross-community action in seven years in a place where ethnic divisions here remain tense despite the 1995 Bosnian peace agreement.

 

''We want to say that war is evil and that we who survived one know that better than anyone,'' said Majda Hadzic, 54.

 

In divided Cyprus, about 500 Greeks and Turks braved heavy rain for a march which briefly blocked the end of a runway at a British air base.

 

Several thousand protesters in Athens, Greece, unfurled a giant banner across the wall of the ancient Acropolis - ''NATO, U.S. and EU equals War'' - before heading toward the U.S. Embassy.

 

Police fired tear gas in clashes with several hundred anarchists wearing hoods and crash helmets, who broke from the otherwise peaceful march to smash store windows and throw a gasoline bomb at a newspaper office.

 

In the Greek port of Thessaloniki, an estimated 10,000 people protested.

 

About 2,000 demonstrators rallied in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. In Moscow, 300 people marched to the U.S. Embassy, with one placard urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to ''be firmer with America.''

 

Six hundred people rallied in downtown Hong Kong, as did 50 or so in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

 

Police in Srinagar in Indian-controlled Kashmir detained at least 35 protesters after about a hundred people, mostly supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), marched through the city.

 

Demonstrators clogged a downtown park in Seoul, South Korea, to chant and listen to anti-war speeches.

 

''I am scared, but the Iraqi people must be more scared than I am. I share their fear,'' said Eun Kook, a 23-year-old student planning to go to Iraq. ''My mission is to sympathize with the Iraqi people and to tell the world that we oppose war.''

 

The day of protest began in New Zealand, where thousands gathered in cities across the country. Over Auckland harbor, a plane trailed a banner reading ''No War - Peace Now,'' at the America's Cup sailing competition.

 

Between 3,000 and 5,000 people marched through a suburb of Canberra, the Australian capital, to protest government support for U.S. policy. Australia has already committed 2,000 troops to the Persian Gulf for possible action.

 

In Tokyo, where 6,000 protested on Friday, about 300 activists gathered near the U.S. Embassy. One placard depicted a U.S. flag emblazoned with a swastika.

 

Demonstrators in Asia expressed skepticism that Iraq posed a threat to world security, saying that President Bush was seeking to extend American control over oil reserves.

 

''We must stop the war as it is part of the United States' plot for global domination,'' protest organizer Nasir Hashim told 1,500 cheering activists outside the U.S. Embassy in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

AP-NY-02-15-03 1131EST

Copyright 2003 Associated Press.

[Guest guest]

February 16, 2003

At Assisi, Iraqi Envoy Publicly Prays for Peace

By FRANK BRUNI

 

ASSISI, Italy, Feb. 15 — The public relations battle between Baghdad and Washington came today to this unlikely hilltop front, where a senior Iraqi official found the ripest of metaphors for his claims that his country is harmless and doing all it can to avoid war.

 

Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, traced the footsteps of St. Francis, the patron of peace and protector of the weak.

 

As religious pilgrimage met media event, Mr. Aziz knelt before the gray stone tomb of the saint. The somber strains of organ music were punctuated by the percussive snap-snap of news photographers' cameras.

 

Mr. Aziz, a Chaldean Christian, walked and talked among the saint's followers, devotees of peace who greeted him before a phalanx of television crews.

 

He prayed, and in a special guest book on an altar near the tomb, he inscribed a wish.

 

"May God the Almighty grant peace to the people of Iraq and the whole world," he wrote. "Amen."

 

Mr. Aziz's visit to Assisi, where St. Francis was born in 1182 and died in 1226, occurred at the same time that demonstrators gathered in cities around the world for a large-scale protest against a possible American-led military invasion of Iraq.

 

The two events, vastly different in scale but similar in goal, reflected an increase in efforts to sway international opinion and to influence the course of events as a moment of American decision seems to draw nearer.

 

Mr. Aziz, who had a private meeting with Pope John Paul II in Rome on Friday, said that the purpose of his visit to Assisi was simple.

 

"My message is peace," he told reporters outside the Basilica of St. Francis.

 

"The people of Iraq want peace, and millions of people around the world are demonstrating for peace," he said, referring to the day's protests. "So let us all work for peace and resist the war and intentions of aggression."

 

In a news conference in Rome on Friday night, Mr. Aziz had repeatedly characterized American plans for a possible strike against Iraq as unprovoked, unwarranted and imperialistic. He said Iraq was cooperating fully with weapons inspections and trying to pave a path toward peace.

 

The time he spent in this storied central Italian city of famous religious monuments represented a symbolic complement to those comments.

 

He was welcomed outside the basilica by the Rev. Vincenzo Coli, the leader of the Franciscans here, and by Bishop Sergio Goretti of Assisi.

 

At a subsequent ceremony in St. Francis's tomb, underneath the basilica, those Roman Catholic leaders presented Mr. Aziz with two symbols of peace.

 

One was an ivory horn that had been given to St. Francis in 1219 by Melek el-Kamel, the sultan of Egypt.

 

"St. Francis used this horn to call his monks to prayer and the silence of peace," Father Coli said. "Let us try to remember that today amid all the noise."

 

The other symbol was a tiny lamp that commemorated a meeting here early last year, when the pope brought together leaders of various religions to pray for peace in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

 

During the ceremony, Bishop Goretti made an impassioned plea against war.

 

"We are convinced that wars have never resolved the problems of humanity," he said. "They have always left a frightening wake of suffering."

 

His remarks, however, were directed at a larger audience than the United States, perhaps including Iraqi officials and Mr. Aziz, who listened quietly, his hands clasped in front of him.

 

"We condemn every form of terrorism, which is the new worrying plague of humanity, as well as building the devastating weapons of destruction," the bishop said.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/16/international/middleeast/16AZIZ.html

[Streetstraw]

Peace Rallies May Impede Push for War

 

President Bush says he wouldn't be deterred by global protests against war with Iraq, speaking to reporters after a ceremony to swear in William H. Donaldson as new Securities and Exchange Commission chairman at the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 18, 2003. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

 

February 19, 2003 03:23 AM EST

WASHINGTON - President Bush is shrugging off global anti-war protests, saying his role as a leader is to put national security first and confront Saddam Hussein.

 

Yet the size of the protests, drawing millions to the streets of world capitals last weekend, complicated White House efforts to rally world support for disarming the Iraqi leader.

 

The administration mounted a public relations campaign Tuesday in an effort to liken the protests to demonstrations against NATO's staging of missiles in Germany in the early 1980s - rather than to the massive protests against the Vietnam War three decades ago.

 

"I respectfully disagree" with those who doubt that Saddam is a threat to peace, Bush said. "I owe it to the American people to secure this country. I will do so."

 

The weekend demonstrations, the largest anti-war protests since the Vietnam era, presented an unwelcome distraction to the White House as it joined with Britain in pressing for a new Iraq war resolution before the U.N. Security Council. More demonstrations are scheduled for March 1 in Washington and San Francisco.

 

"These marches are 1983 all over again," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, referring to angry street protests against NATO's positioning of intermediate-range missiles in what was then West Germany.

 

In that case, the missiles helped contribute to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany, Fleischer suggested.

 

"There is no question that, as a result of peace through strength, communism was defeated and the Berlin Wall came down," Fleischer said.

 

"The point I'm making is that mass street protests don't always lead to the results people think," the spokesman added. "Often the message of the protesters is contradicted by history."

 

He also noted that there was substantial anti-war sentiment in the United States in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but that President Franklin D. Roosevelt rallied the U.S. public in World War II "to save the world."

 

Historians and analysts suggested that the recent demonstrations are not really comparable to those against the Vietnam War - held as the war was going on and as thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were losing their lives.

 

Such protests "are not going to have the same policy implications as Vietnam, because this war is going to be over fast even if it goes badly," said Michael O'Hanlon, an analyst with the Brookings Institution. "So you're not going to have that sense of a protracted military stalemate."

 

As with those missile protests in Europe, the current demonstrations are "serious but ultimately containable," O'Hanlon said. Even so, he said, the missiles-in-Germany flap "had the potential to really divide the alliance. And it took a lot of work to get beyond it."

 

At the very least, O'Hanlon said, the level of global opposition now to war in Iraq makes it harder for Bush to press ahead with military action anytime soon.

 

Demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday in London, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Sydney and dozens of U.S. cities.

 

Bush talked about the protests in a question-and-answer session Tuesday with reporters after a White House swearing-in ceremony for new Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson.

 

"Democracy is a beautiful thing," Bush said. "I welcome people's right to say what they believe."

 

But he said neither the size of the protests nor the anti-war message of the demonstrators would sway him.

 

That would be "like deciding ... policy based upon a focus group. The role of a leader is to decide policy based upon the security - in this case, the security of the people," the president said.

 

"War is my last choice. But the risk of doing nothing is even a worse option as far as I'm concerned," Bush said.

 

As to negative public reaction, particularly in countries that are traditional U.S. allies, Bush said, "I think anytime somebody shows courage, when it comes to peace, that the people will eventually understand that."

 

Polls show that Bush has persuaded a majority of Americans about the need for military action against Iraq, but most want more time for the United Nations to build a broad alliance.

 

ps - Which polls? Totem polls? Flagpolls? Vaultpolls?

[Guest guest]

[Streetstraw]

So far I've heard, Turkey's Parliament just voted against falling prey to US bribery and coersion, that is, against facilitating US troops ALONG Turkey's Iraqi border.

Somewhere it's written: CONVINCE

1) brahmanas with logic

2) ksatriyas with praise, flattery

3) vaisyas with payola = envelopes under the table

4) sudras with argumentum vaculum - a stick

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

Turkey Delays Vote on Allowing In U.S. Troops for Iraq War

By Dexter Filkins

New York Times

Thursday 27 February 2003

 

ISTANBUL — Turkey's leaders postponed a scheduled parliamentary vote today on whether to allow American combat troops to use the country as a base against Iraq. The move came amid indications that the ruling party was having difficulty mustering the necessary support.

 

Turkish officials said the vote would be held on Saturday. That would allow time for Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and other senior leaders to meet with the country's senior military leaders, who are believed to support the American plan.

 

The decision to delay the vote on American troops followed statements made today by a spokesman for Turkey's president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, that the Constitution required Parliament to find that the operation involving the deployment of American troops had "international legitimacy." Many Turks have interpreted that as a call for Parliament to wait for a second United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.

 

Turkey's president cannot veto a parliamentary resolution authorizing troops, but his opinion is considered important here. One senior Turkish official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said his country's leadership was so worried about the potential political fallout from a vote to allow American troops that the president's comments had prompted the delay until after a meeting of Turkey's national security council, which the president chairs.

 

"They are worried about the day after the vote," the Turkish official said.

 

Turkey's military, which has intervened in domestic politics repeatedly over the years, is thought to favor allowing American troops. The Turkish official said the country's elected leaders might be trying to use the meeting to protect themselves politically, by suggesting that it was the generals who suggested that they support the measure.

 

Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the governing Justice and Development Party, has signaled his support for the resolution and predicted that his party will come together for the vote. But there were indications that many members of the party, which commands a large majority, might not be willing to go along.

 

"I don't think it is correct for Turkey to be part of such an American invasion," Ibrahim Hakki Askar, a legislator from the Justice and Development Party, said in an interview. "A serious group of electors are against this war."

 

The United States has been trying for weeks to persuade Turkey's leaders to open up its bases to American troops for an invasion of Iraq. But the agreement has bogged down on a number of issues, including economic aid and the possible intervention of Turkish troops in northern Iraq.

 

Today, Turkey's defense minister, Vecdi Gonul, said his government had reached an agreement with the Americans on military issues, including the deployment of soldiers into northern Iraq.

 

The issue is a sensitive one, with the deployment opposed by the Kurds of northern Iraq, where they have set up an autonomous region apart from that ruled by President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

 

Turkey wants to send troops into the region to prevent refugees from fleeing to Turkey from Iraq, and to prevent the Iraqi Kurds from setting up their own state. The Turks fear that a Kurdish state in Iraq may stoke similar designs in their own Kurdish regions.

 

Under the agreement, according to Turkish officials, Turkish soldiers would venture no deeper than about 12 miles into Iraq and would be under Turkish command.

 

The agreement also allows Turkish soldiers to observe the disarmament of Kurdish militias, which would be expected to follow the defeat of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of a new national army. The Turkish soldiers would also observe the arming of any Kurdish soldiers carried out, presumably, by the American military in preparation for an attack war against Mr. Hussein's forces.

 

A Turkish government official said the Turks had given up a demand that they take part in the disarming of the Kurds, which Kurdish leaders in Iraq had vowed to resist.

 

Under the agreement, the Turkish military would also stay away from the northern Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Mosel. They would be left to the American forces.

 

Mr. Erdogan said in a television interview that the number of Turkish troops entering northern Iraq would be double those sent in by the Americans. He suggested that they might venture deeper into the country if the need arose.

"They may go further down if necessary; it is not certain," Mr. Erdogan said.

[Guest guest]

<center></center>

 

 

<font size=+1 color="blue">We've launched an emergency petition from citizens around the world to the U.N. Security Council.

We'll be delivering the list of signers and your comments to the 15 member states of the Security Council on THURSDAY, MARCH 6.

 

If hundreds of thousands of us sign, it could be an enormously important and powerful message -- people from all over the world joining in a single call for a peaceful solution.

But we really need your help, and soon.

 

Please sign and ask your friends and colleagues to sign TODAY at:

 

http://www.moveon.org/emergency/

 

In the next week, the U.N. Security Council will likely meet to decide on authorizing a war against Iraq. If the Council votes to accept a second resolution, it'll be very difficult to avert a war. But if the resolution doesn't get enough votes, it'll be a major setback for the Bush Administration's plans to invade and occupy Iraq.

In the United States and around the world, millions of us oppose a war against Iraq. We believe that tough inspections can disarm Saddam Hussein without the loss of a single life.

 

This week may represent our last chance to win without war.

 

The stakes couldn't really be much higher. A war with Iraq could kill tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and inflame the Middle East. According to current plans, it would require an American occupation of the country for years to come. And it could escalate in ways that are horrifying to imagine.

 

We can stop this tragedy from unfolding. But we need to speak together, and we need to do so now. Let's show the Security

Council what world citizens think. You can add your voice at:

 

http://www.moveon.org/emergency/

 

Then please ask your friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances -- anyone you know who shares this concern -- to sign on today.

 

As the New York Times put it, &quot;there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion.&quot;

 

The Bush Administration's been flexing its muscles.

Now let's flex ours.

Sincerely,

--Eli Pariser

International Campaigns Director

MoveOn.org

 

March 3rd, 2003</font>

 

P.S. Here's the letter we'll be delivering to the Security Council members along with the petition:

<font color="navy">Dear Member of the U.N. Security Council,

We are citizens from countries all over the world. We are

speaking together because we will all be affected by a

decision in which your country has a major part -- the

decision of how to disarm Iraq.

The first reason for its existence listed in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations is &quot; to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.&quot;

 

If your country supports a Security Council resolution that would

authorize a war on Iraq, you will directly contradict that

charter. You will be supporting an unnecessary war -- a

war which immediately, and in its unknown consequences,

could bring &quot;untold sorrow to mankind&quot; once again.

 

The U.N. was created to enable peaceful alternatives to

conflict. The weapons inspections under way are a perfect

example of just such an alternative, and their growing

success is a testament to the potential power the U.N. holds.

 

By supporting tough inspections instead of war, you can show the world a real way to resolve conflict without bloodshed.

 

But if you back a war, it will undermine the very premise

upon which the U.N. was built.

 

President Bush argues that only by endorsing a war on Iraq can the United Nations prove its relevance. We argue theopposite. If the Security Council allows itself to be completely swayed by one member nation, in the face of viable alternatives, common sense and world public opinion, then it will be diminished in its role, effectiveness, and in the opinion of humankind.</font>

 

<font color="red"><big>We do not support this war. For billions of citizens in hundreds of countries, and for the future generations whose lives will be shaped by the choice you make, we ask that you stand firm against the pressuring of the Bush Administration, and support tough inspections for Iraq.

 

The eyes of the world are on you.</big></font>

 

Sincerely,

[Number] citizens of the world.</font>

 

 

<center></center>

 

[Guest guest]

108 Peace Slogans For Signs

 

http://www.celebrity-websites.com/peacefulartists.htm

 

" I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations.

I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there."

 

Mother Teresa

 

 

 

1) Thou Shalt Not Kill

 

2) Imagine All The People Living Life In Peace

 

3) Who Would Jesus Bomb?

 

4) Peaceful Renewable Energies

 

5) Peace is Patriotic

 

6) The United States Of Imperialism

 

7) Love&#8217;s In Need Of Love Today

 

8) The United States Military Spends $25,000 Per Second. Why?

 

9) Give Peace A Chance

 

10) One Nation Under Surveillance

 

11) Major Media Are Weapons Of Mass Propaganda

 

12) Peace On Earth

 

13) Stop Mad Sheep Disease Now -- with pictures of sheep carrying flags

 

14) Say Can You See My Democracy?

 

15) Iraq Has The Second Largest Reserves Of Oil On Earth

 

16) The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Bush Himself

 

17) Peaceful Hydrogen Fuel Cells

 

18) War Is Expensive, Peace Is Priceless

 

19) Hitler, Hirohito, Stalin, Bush Love Wars &#8211; with pictures of each

 

20) Asses Of Evil -- with pictures of Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice and Rumsfeld

 

21) The United States Military Spends $1,500,000 Per Minute. Why?

 

22) Peace And Love

 

23) What Happened To Loving Kindness

 

24) How Many Lives Per Gallon?

 

25) Love Thy Neighbor

 

26) Go Solar, Not Ballistic

 

27) All You Need Is Love

 

28) All Wars Are Criminal

 

29) Freedom Of The Lapdog Stenographer Warmongering Press

 

30) Don't Arm A Son Of A Bush

 

31) Don't Do It, George, Dad Will Still Love You

 

32) Peace Takes Brains

 

33) Love Earth For Future Generations

 

34) The United States Military Spends $90,000,000 Per Hour. Why?

 

35) The World Says No To War

 

36) Peaceful Wind And Solar Energy

 

37) Read Between The Pipelines

 

38) Peace Is Sane War Is Insane

 

39) Stop Wars Dictators Profiters Bush

 

40) How Did Our Oil Get Under Their Sand?

 

41) Resistance Is Fertile

 

42) More Candy Less War -- for children

 

43) A Massacre Is Not A War

 

44) George Dubya: Weapon Of Mass Distraction

 

45) More Inspectors Equals Peace

 

46) War is Over, If You Want It

 

47) Think And Pray For Peace

 

48) Start Drafting SUV Drivers Now

 

49) God Blesses Iraq

 

50) Anything War Can Do, Peace Can Do Better

 

51) Only Crazy Humanimals Go To Wars

 

52) Power To The Peaceful

 

53) Negotiation Not Annihilation

 

54) Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor

 

55) The United States Military Spends $2,160,000,000 Per Day. Why?

 

56) The New U.S. / British Oil Imperialism At: OilCompanies.net

 

57) Stop The War

 

58) The Corporate Fourth Estate

 

59) Pray For Peace

 

60) No War On Iraq

 

61) November 22, 1963, April 4, 1968, June 6, 1968 and December 8, 1980

 

62) My President Is A Psychopath

 

63) Killing Innocent People Is The Problem, Not The Solution

 

64) Save America, Spare Iraq, Make Texas Take Him Back

 

65) Make Alternative Energy Not War

 

66) Has Anyone Seen Our Constitution Lately?

 

67) We Will End War

 

68) When Bush Comes To Shove

 

69) Brains Not Bombs

 

70) A Village In Texas Has Lost Its Idiot

 

71) Beat The Bushes For Peace

 

72) The United States Military Spends $15,120,000,000 Per Week. Why?

 

73) Drop Bush, Not Bombs

 

74) Evolve! Work For A Non-Violent Future

 

75) If War Is The Answer We're Asking The Wrong Question

 

76) Real Patriots Drive Hybrids

 

77) Small Print For Peace (on a teensy card held aloft on a stick like any large sign)

 

78) Stop Mad Cowboy Disease

 

79) George Bush Couldn't Run A Laundromat

 

80) There Is No Path To Peace - Peace Is The Path

 

81) Make Love Not War

 

82) One Peaceful Earth

 

83) Nonviolence, Not Nonexistence

 

84) Regime Change Begins At Home

 

85) Put The Peace Back In

 

86) No Hitting (held by young girl)

 

87) No Oilgarchy (Oilgarchy in circle with slash across it)

 

88) Rich Man's War Poor Man's Blood

 

89) The United States Military Spends $65,573,200,000 Per Month. Why?

 

90) No More BuShit

 

91) Let's Try Preemptive Peace

 

92) Books Not Bombs

 

93) If You Are Not Outraged You Are Not Paying Attention

 

94) Smart Bombs Don't Justify Dumb Leaders

 

95) We Have Guided Missiles And Misguided Men

 

96) Who's The Unelected Tyrant With The Bombs?

 

97) Peaceful Solution Not Daddy's Retribution

 

98) All Humanity Is Downwind

 

99) God Blesses All 6,200,000,000 Of Us

 

100) Relax, George

 

101) Who Would Have Thought The "W" Stood For War?

 

102) The United States Military Spends $788,918,400,000 Per Year. Why?

 

103) Cake Sales For The Military

 

104) Justice Or Just Us?

 

105) Bilderbergs, Council On Foreign Relations, Trilatteral Commission, Skull & Bones

 

106) Buck Fush

 

107) Love Is The Answer

 

108) Thou Shalt Not Steal -- Iraqi Oil And Water

 

 

http://www.peaceonearth.net/108PeaceSlogansForSigns.htm

 

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Another collection of slogans transcribed from signs seen at recent peace rallies...

 

http://www.radio-exile.freeservers.com/peace_signs.htm

[Tarun]

otherwise not. GItA prathamAdhyAya

Our present world leaders will have to learn this insurmountable karma-phalam truth the hard way.

Hard, harder, hardest...