Mt
Holly Monthly Meeting Letter to the Senator
81 High Street, Mt Holly, NJ 08060
October
6, 2002
Dear
Senator Torricelli,
Mt
Holly Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers) opposes
any Congressional resolution that would allow the President
to wage war against Iraq.
President
Bush has requested broad authority to undertake unilateral military
action without providing any convincing evidence that Iraq is
an immediate threat to the United States. This request undermines
the bi-partisan foreign policy objectives of the United States
since World War II based on promoting mutual security through
international law. The Security Council of the United Nations
should be allowed to pursue a weapons inspections program. The
United States must renounce the use of weapons of mass destruction
if we are to make any legitimate demand that Iraq or other nations
should not possess them.
We
understand that constituent messages to Congress are ranging
between 5 and 10 to 1 against war in Iraq now. Clearly there
is no public mandate for preemptive war! Our local communities
are already affected by the costs of the war on terrorism on
the economy and the environment. The problems of poverty and
environmental degradation continue to increase while programs
to address them have been reduced. Current estimates for a war
in Iraq range from 6 billion to 9 billion dollars a month.
Congress
needs to engage in a full and open discussion of the administration's
policies toward Iraq, including the possibility that military
action by the United States in Iraq will result in
- a
wider war,
- political
anarchy in Iraq and political chaos in the region
- an
extended period of U.S. occupation,
- increased
probability of terrorism against the United States for using
unilateral military force
for reasons that are widely, and we believe rightly, perceived
as unjust.
The
costs and risks of US unilateral military action, in loss of
life both for combatants and for innocent civilians, and in
political and economic destabilization, are simply too high.
We urge you to do whatever you can to shift our government's
priorities away from a unilateral, preemptive strike on Iraq
and toward addressing the real security needs of the American
people.
Sincerely,
Margaret
Mansfield, Clerk
OTHER
QUAKER STATEMENTS & LETTERS
Reviewed:
09/06/2005
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