EdgeLeft.org

On Sunday, October 7th, George Bush took the United States to war against a state, Afghanistan, which had not attacked us. He acted without a declaration of war from a Congress.

This is a time for sober reflection and a careful examination of the facts and of the courses of action open to a more responsible administration than the one nominally headed by George Bush.

First, we need a full accounting for how it was possible for the CIA, the FBI, and NSA to have no advance information of such a well coordinated attack on U.S. target as occurred on September 11th, and why, even after the first jet rammed into the World Trade Center, George Bush continued to chat with school children in Florida while the Pentagon sat and waited while another jet struck it. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were criminal acts which cost the lives of thousands. How were those attacks even possible?

Second, we demand that if Osama Bin Laden is guilty, the evidence be presented to the American public, and the Congress of the United States, rather than to a British Prime Minister. It strains belief that an American President would take this nation to war without clear and convincing proof of the guilt of the country attacked.

Third, if Osama Bin Laden is guilty (and certainly someone is guilty of the criminal attacks of September 11th), why resort to war in a situation where the attacks can do little except deepen the refugee crisis and frightened families try to escape across the border into Pakistan. And why target Afghanistan when Bin Laden and his key supporters are from Saudi Arabia.

We do not want to engage in legalisms - but it is outrageous that the American public finds itself at war without knowing the facts. Those who died in the September 11th attacks deserve to be treated as victims whose families are still in mourning, not as an excuse for new military adventures by an unpopular regime trapped in a recession.

NATO waited for many long months before Milosevic was turned over to the Hague Tribunal - it did not launch an invasion of Serbia. (And while we do not question the responsibility of Milosevic for much of the horror in the Balkans, since the British and American governments deliberately targeted civilians in attacking Serbia, and such attacks are crimes of war - there is room in the docks at the Hague for leaders in the West as well as for Milosevic).

Fourth, we want to focus attention on the causes of the present tragedy, which go back to the Gulf War, to the US support of the Taliban while it was fighting Soviet forces, and to a series of decisions made by the current and past administrations. To start bombing now only postpones a needed examination of US foreign policy, which has been designed to serve the corporate interests of this country, not our own citizens, or those of other nations.

Fifth, we want to point out that there were and still are other channels open for those who believe
Osama Bin Laden is guilty. There are a range of international agreements and treaties which the government of the US has signed, which bind it to bring the charges before international tribunals rather than resorting to war. The United States has once more rushed to war rather than sought a peaceful resolution.

This war is being carried on without our consent. We encourage members of the armed forces to consider carefully their own role in a war which, despite its wide popular support at the moment,
is a violation of our own constitution and of the Charter of the United Nations.

For our part we shall continue to protest and to educate, to rally Americans to a thoughtful examination of the roots of this crisis and alternatives to the bombing of a distant nation already in ruins from more than ten years of relentless military conflict.

We call upon the Congress of the United States to take control of its own rights and responsibilities, and to place sharp and immediate limits on the powers of the Executive to conduct the present war.

Our pain is not an excuse for war. The crime of the World Trade Center bombing is not a justification for the crime of taking civilians lives in a distant land. We categorically state that e have no confidence in the present Administration permitting the facts to reach the broad public. It is war which created Osama Bin Laden, and it is war which shall win more recruits to the fanatic and reactionary positions held by his followers. War is not the solution - it is the problem.