logo STOP CASSINI EARTH FLYBY
- on the US, UN and Iraq crisis
The Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby endorses the following letter to President Clinton. Bombing Iraq for arms control in this instance is a big mistake. It could create a human and environmental nightmare for many years to come.

  1. the attack would indiscriminately kill and harm many innocent people and other living things;
  2. it could create an environmental catastrophe, spreading dangerous nuclear and chemical materials;
  3. it would support, not hinder, the development and use of weapons of mass destruction, engaging terrorist organizations to respond in the coming years and decades;
  4. the attack would weaken the disarmament interests and other programs of the United Nations.

President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

February 16, 1998

Dear Mr President,

Please consider what you are threatening to do.

You are threatening the lives of thousands of innocent people, including women and children, to punish one man - a dictator. You are threatening to destroy Iraq's chemical and biological arsenals by bombing them and therefore releasing their poisonous contents into the atmosphere to be breathed in by those people and the people of other Countries. You have not even excluded the ultimate threat: the use of nuclear weapons on people.

Will this threat secure the right to inspect all Saddam's facilities? Even if it did, biological weapons can be kept in a two-bedroom flat or a farm or anywhere. The inspections in themselves will not stop Saddam if he wants to develop these weapons. Nor will threats to bomb his people, who either support him and are prepared to die, or don't support him and he would prefer to see dead. The only solution is a political solution. 88,500 tons of bombs dropped on Iraq in 1991 did not solve the problem., Nor has the deprivation of food and medicine through sanctions helped to change the minds of the people of Iraq. It has only served to make them believe Saddam even more. Over a million have died, more than half of whom were children, as a result of these sanctions. 4,500 children under the age of 5 are dying every month from starvation and treatable diseases.

And now you want to bomb them again.

What day and age are we living in, when the United States cannot find other solutions to conflicts than killing? What double standards are in play when Mordechai Vanunu is held nearly 12 years in solitary confinement for telling the world that Israel secretly has developed nuclear weapons, while the Iraqi people must be annihilated because Saddam tried to do the same thing?

Mr President, we beg you to see reason. Do not bomb Iraq.

The above letter was written by Xanthe Hall in response to a request for a joint letter by Jonathan Haber in the Abolition 2000 caucus group. Xanthe Hall is Co-Director of the regional German IPPNW Organization.

Please consider endorsing this letter and the Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby. Links to many of the following endorsers of this letter are at the NoFlyby support page.

Signatories include:

Dear friends,

Please consider copying and revising my letter to President Clinton and send it to him via email, regular mail and fax. Also, consider forwarding your letter to others with the same request. If you wish, when sending your letters to President Clinton you can send me a Cc to: info@flybynews.com .

Thanks, with prayers of goodwill and peace,
Jonathan

President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

1 March 1998

Fax: 202-456-6208
Email: president@whitehouse.gov

Re: Xanthe Hall's 2/16/98 letter to President Clinton, posted at http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/ref/iraq.htm

Dear Mr. President:

Please consider the consensus of hundreds of organizations that have endorsed the referenced letter to you. I am convinced that bombing Iraq without direct provocation would work against the interests of the United States and our world community. The attack would not rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, but instead would unbearably harm many innocent people and other forms of life. It could spread dangerous nuclear and chemical agents into the atmosphere spreading through neighborhoods of Iran to cross over borders. Instead of hindering the threat from terrorist organizations, the attack would add to their determination and reasoning to target the United States and its allies.

The most effective method in stopping the threat of weapons of mass destruction is diplomacy, containment and strengthening the resolve of each nation to work together. Our interests are linked. More than 880 Organizations have endorsed the Abolition 2000 Statement, which calls for negotiations in the year 2000 to ban nuclear weapons. Please consider supporting this direction and include the banning of technologies capaple of mass destruction. Life is too precious to risk such harm.

Mr. President, the best method to protect the United States is to develop a consensus with the United Nations on disarmament and policy issues that make peace with all nationalities, religions and cultures. The rights of individual nations to wage violence should only be from a direct threat where there is no other choice. Making Iraq submit to our will would cause devastation, animosity, pain and suffering. However, by containing Saddam Hussein and working with the world community, this would show that we care about the people of Iraq and its effect would be a pathway for peace and security. To bring this to life, the U.S. should support the lifting of economic sanctions for both the people of Iraq and Cuba. This would not only end the suffering of many people, but create a better environment for peace and democracy to develop and prosper.

Please consider these reasonable thoughts and do not respond to the military-industrial incentives for making war, the fear that drives profits into the hands of a few upon the tragedy of many. Please, listen to our spiritual connection and use your integrity, wisdom and firmness to help in the safeguarding of our planet.

With best regards,

Jonathan M. Haber
Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby

Ideas of what to do with this letter:

  1. send it to your elected representatives and to President Clinton, best way is to call and make contact with the aide in charge of the issue. Then find a way to get the written letter to the aide.
  2. revise or send it as a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
  3. help finance the printing of the letter in the "Washington Post" newspaper.

We only have a small window of opportunity to help prevent actions that could harm our world for a long time. Please respond.


The Abolition 2000 Statement

The key to Peace is in our uniting.

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This page was last published on 3/28/98 10:50:57 AM by The NoFlyby Webmaster

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