Arguments against the war
Seems the only question about war with Iraq is, what day will it start? Here are some arguments I’d make the morning after the war started. This is also available on the Socialist Party USA web site. A printed copy would make a dandy little leaflet to hand out on the street.
THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ
The United States has started another war against Iraq. We think there are some things every citizen should know about it.
The President is lying about Iraq.
George W. Bush has worked hard to sell this war. There have been repeated claims that Iraq is developing weapons, perhaps biological or chemical weapons, perhaps even nuclear weapons, and plans to use them against Israel, or, somehow, against the United States. The Bush Administration has offered no evidence for these claims, and has no intention of providing any.
The target is domestic political dissent, not Iraq.
What Bush calls the War on Terrorism is all about providing political cover for the right-wing Republican agenda: tax cuts for the rich, more public resources given away to big corporations, more government spying on citizens, stamping out labor unions. Bush needs war to stifle opposition to his domestic program.
Starting the war was a war crime.
Under international law, it is a war crime to attack, or threaten to attack, another country that has not first attacked us. Iraq has not attacked us. The men who gave the orders to attack Iraq are war criminals, as surely as the war criminals who have stood trial in the Hague for genocide.
There are already too many victims.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children have died as a result of United States sanctions against Iraq following the first Gulf War. Many more innocent civilians will die in this war. Those who survive will likely face even harsher conditions than before. And many more Muslims around the world, witnessing this brutal anti-Islamic crusade, are becoming convinced that we are their enemy.
Will you stand silent?
The Bush Administration is hoping you will. They cynically expect that you will put your morals aside and let war crimes be committed in your name. They think you’re scared and ignorant enough to go along with anti-Arab racism. They think you can be hoodwinked into giving up your Constitutional rights for the illusion of security. Prove them wrong. Join us in resisting the war.