LET HIS PEOPLE GO:

The peace message: 12 Reasons to Oppose a War with Iraq. (Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, SF Bay Guardian)

[P]articularly with the airwaves and op-ed pages dominated by warmongers who mock and mischaracterize the burgeoning peace movement, there remains a need to continually reiterate the common-sense reasons to oppose a war. Here are a dozen:

1. Iraq is no threat to the United States [...]

2. Iraq is deterrable [...]

3. Iraq's only conceivable threat to the United States is in event of war [...]

4. Other terrorist risks rise in event of war [...]

5. U.S. soldiers are vulnerable to chemical or biological attack in a war [...]

6. Inspections can work [...]

7. Common sense says err on the side of nonviolence [...]

8. The doctrine of preventive war is a threat to international law and humanity [...]

9. Reject empire [...]

10. Revenge is not a legitimate motive for war [...]

11. There are better solutions to our energy problems [...]

12. Iraqi lives are at stake: Unless a war brings immediate abdication by Saddam, military action is sure to cause massive casualties among Iraqi conscripts and especially among Iraqi civilians. Solidarity with the Iraqi people – not their brutal government, but the people – requires opposition to a war almost certain to cause them enormous suffering.

Saddam Hussein himself said last year that 1.5 million Iraqis had died since the sanctions regime was imposed--how many more are we willing to let die before he's deposed? Posted by Orrin Judd at March 6, 2003 4:16 PM