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If Not War, What? 10 Points
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Progressive Portal
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Feb 01, 2002 12:18 PST
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FCNL INFO LINE
January 28, 2002
(To learn more about the FCNL INFO LINE, please see the end of this
message.)
IF NOT WAR, THEN WHAT? ALTERNATIVES TO THE "WAR AGAINST TERROR"
(REVISED)
The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) opposes the use of
U.S. military force in response to the September 11th attacks. War is
not the answer.
We continue to grieve for the many unique, precious and irreplaceable
people who were murdered in the September 11 attacks. Our outrage at
those terrible acts of violence is rooted in our profound belief that
every human being is a creature of God and has been put here for a very
special purpose. Those who helped in planning and carrying out the
attacks have violated the most fundamental laws of a civil society. They
should be held accountable under those laws.
Yet the terror and grief have not ended with the September 11
atrocities. While the full civilian death toll in Afghanistan has yet to
be compiled, it is virtually certain that hundreds, if not thousands, of
civilians have been killed or maimed directly by the war, and that
hundreds, if not thousands more, refugees from the U.S. bombing have
died from hidden landmines, hunger, or exposure to the elements. We
cannot simply consign these innocent victims to the category of
"collateral damage" or an "accident of war." They, too, were unique and
precious human beings who will never be replaced. The U.S. government
had no right to sacrifice their lives in its pursuit of justice.
We call upon the United States government to end the downward spiral of
attacks and reprisals, a spiral begun long before September 11, but
propelled by those attacks. Terrorism is not a person, place, or thing.
You cannot blast it out of this world. Violent retaliation by the U.S.
will sow more seeds of hatred and reap a new harvest of terror. Instead,
we call upon the President and Congress to help lead the world out of
the wilderness of war and terror and into a new world where people
exercise reverence for life and nations respect the international rule
of law.
Many ask: If not war, then what should the U.S. do instead to respond
to the horrific attacks of September 11? As an alternative to war, we
believe the U.S. should:
1. Cooperate with law enforcement agencies around the world in bringing
to justice those involved in international terrorism to the full extent
of U.S. and international law. Toward that end, the U.S. Senate should
ratify and implement the International Convention for the Suppression of
Terrorist Bombing and assist and encourage other countries in doing so.
In response to earlier bombing attacks against Pan Am flight 103, the
World Trade Center, and the U.S. embassies in Africa, U.S. officials
worked successfully with law enforcement agencies around the world to
apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of those attacks.
2. Lead the international community in cooperative action to stop the
flow of financial resources that support violent terror networks. Toward
that end, the U.S. Senate should ratify and implement the International
Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.
3. Through the UN Security Council, call for the establishment of a
special international tribunal (or authorize an existing tribunal) to
investigate and prosecute the September 11 attacks as crimes against
humanity. To have legitimacy and to receive full cooperation from other
countries, these cases should be tried before an international tribunal
rather than before a U.S. court or military tribunal. To help deter and
prosecute future crimes against humanity, the U.S. Senate should join
the world community by ratifying the Rome Statute for the International
Criminal Court.
4. Preserve civil liberties for U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike;
maintain full public accountability of U.S. governing institutions; and
protect vulnerable groups in the U.S. from racial profiling, hate
crimes, and harassment. The U.S. must not and need not sacrifice its
core values in the process of defending them from acts of terror.
Rather, the U.S. should demonstrate its enduring commitment to freedom,
democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in the way it pursues
justice.
5. Through the UN Security Council, lead the international community in
bringing diplomatic, political, and economic pressure and incentives to
bear on governments that give support or shelter to terror networks. If
international sanctions are applied, they should be focused narrowly so
as to isolate and limit the capacities of those in political power while
avoiding harm to civilian populations.
6. Respond with compassion and generous, sustained humanitarian and
development assistance to the suffering of the innocent peoples in
Afghanistan, Colombia, Somalia, the Congo, Iraq, the Sudan, Pakistan,
and other zones of conflict. War orphans, refugee children, and youth
without hope, today numbering in the millions, are especially vulnerable
to recruitment by terrorist organizations.
7. Intensify U.S. efforts to secure a just and lasting peace in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a major source of deep anti-U.S. sentiment
throughout the Arab world.
8. Lead the international community in cooperative efforts to dealert,
reduce, and eliminate existing stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and
biological weapons in the U.S., Russia, and elsewhere. This includes
increasing substantially U.S. funding for the "Nunn-Lugar" cooperative
threat reduction programs with Russia. To reduce the threat from weapons
of mass destruction further, the Bush Administration and Congress should
support the pending protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention,
ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and preserve the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. If the U.S. does not lead, the danger
from these weapons will continue to grow.
9. Support an international code of conduct on arms transfers and a ban
on the sale and transfer of weapons to zones of conflict. Weapons sales
and transfers increase acts of violence, suffering, and the collapse of
civil society institutions. The U.S. is the world's largest exporter of
weapons. It should not export weapons to regimes that are undemocratic
and violate human rights.
10. Develop environmentally sound energy and transportation policies to
reduce U.S. dependence on oil, a driving factor behind U.S. military
intervention and violent conflicts in the Persian Gulf region.
WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER
For more information and resources, call FCNL at (800) 630-1330 or visit
<http://www.fcnl.org>.
****
These talking points are posted on FCNL's web site at
<http://www.fcnl.org/issues/afghanistan/terrorism/stmt_tenpoints.htm>.
To view a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) version of the talking points, suitable
for printing and distribution, follow the link on the above page that
reads <Click here for PDF version>.
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