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THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
MEDIA RELEASE: Thursday, March 20, 2003
Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com
"[O]ur position is that no grievances or
policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced
and condemned as an instrument of policy."
-- Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Jackson, U.S. Representative
to the International Conference on Military Trials, August 12,
1945, speaking on the culpability of German leaders.
WASHINGTON, DC -- As President Bush gave orders
launching the invasion of Iraq, the Green Party of the United States
reaffirmed its opposition to the war and demand for the withdrawal of
troops, quoting Theodore Roosevelt:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of
the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong,
is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American public." (Remarks in 1918 on President Woodrow Wilson's
suppression of dissent against U.S. involvement in World War I)
Pledging to maintain protests and other nonviolent
action, Greens called the invasion a war of conquest and warned that
President Bush and White House officials may find themselves indicted
for numerous violations of U.S. and international law. Greens and other
antiwar activists are organizing emergency responses to the invasion,
including a recall campaign, initiated by www.PeaceEconomy.org,
against pro-war Congress members who violated their oath to uphold the
Constitution by surrendering their power to declare war.
"The success of the U.N. inspections has only
proven the need for continued diplomatic efforts undertaken in
cooperation with the international community," said Annie Goeke,
co-chair of the party's International Committee. "Nowhere in
Resolution 1441 is there language that requires overthrowing the
government of Iraq in a bloody invasion. There is no legal or moral
basis for this war."
Greens listed several examples of crimes that may
make Bush and other White House officials vulnerable to domestic
prosecution and to Nuremburg-style international trials:
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CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS: Military
aggression and conquest violate the constitutionally mandated role
of U.S. armed forces. (Article I, Section 8; Article IV, Section 4)
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VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (U.N. Charter;
Geneva Convention): Preemptive invasion without proof of an
imminent attack is an illegal act of military aggression. The Bush
Administration has never proved that an attack by Saddam on the U.S.
or any other country is imminent. The mission of the U.N. is to
avert war, not to rubberstamp invasions.
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LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THE WORLD:
President Bush, Secretary of State Powell, Defense Secretary
Rumsfeld, and other officials have lied about the weapons capability
of Iraq, including nuclear, bio, and chemical arms (Iraq has no
means to deliver them); about connections between Saddam and al-Qaeda
(which seeks to overthrow Saddam); about Saddam's involvement in
terrorism against the U.S. (no evidence); about the U.S.'s intention
to establish democracy in Iraq. In his January 28 State of the Union
address, Bush used a paranoid fantasy scenario to justify war:
"Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans,
this time armed by Saddam Hussein....".
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell
them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in
any country." -- Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg
Trials, April 18, 1946.
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RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT: While Bush claims
that the war on Iraq is necessary for homeland security, the
invasion will result in terrorist retaliation against Americans at
home and abroad. While Bush expresses concern for Iraqi civilians,
the U.S. plans for a "shock and awe" campaign, with a
massive missile attack on Baghdad, and intends to use cluster bombs
and landmines, which will kill and maim thousands of civilians. The
U.S. will also use depleted uranium, despite the severe health
problems it caused American soldiers and Iraqi civilians in the last
Persian Gulf War. The U.S.'s illegal coercive techniques in the
treatment of al-Qaeda prisoners, with some prisoners sent to Egypt
and other countries that use torture openly, places U.S. soldiers
who are captured at grave risk of torture.
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SUBTERFUGE: U.S. intelligence sabotaged
the U.N. inspections in Iraq by withholding crucial information from
the inspectors about Saddam Hussein's arsenal -- evident in Powell's
own presentation before the U.N. Powell cited a graduate student's
dossier on Iraq published ten years ago as 'damning evidence'
collected by the British Secret Service. The U.N. is investigating
the bugging, allegedly by the U.S., of the offices and phone lines
of U.N. delegations whose support the Bush Administration sought for
the invasion.
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BRIBERY AND EXTORTION: The Bush
Administration bribed Turkey and other countries to get their
support in the U.N. for invading Iraq, and also threatened to
withdraw foreign aid and impose other penalties. (The $26 billion
bribe failed to persuade the Turkish parliament.)
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AIDING AND ABETTING THE ENEMY: U.S.
companies, in deals negotiated in part with Rumsfeld's help, sold
Iraq chemical, bio (including Anthrax), and other weapons during the
1980s. While Vice President Cheney served as CEO, Halliburton
subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root did $73 million worth of
business with Iraq between 1998 and 2000 and sold Iraq pulse
generators, designed for oil drilling but which can be used for
nuclear detonations, despite the economic sanctions against Iraq.
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WAR PROFITEERING: According to the Wall
Street Journal (January 16, 2003), officials from the White House,
State Department, and Defense Department have met with execs from
Halliburton, ExxonMobil, and other oil firms to determine who will
control Iraqi oil after the war. Halliburton now has a
multimillion-dollar contract to rebuild Iraq's oil field after the
war, and ExxonMobil has won a $47.8 million contract to supply
gasoline, diesel fuel and motor oil to U.S. and NATO forces.
MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
National office: 1314 18th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 202-319-7191,
866-41GREEN
Green Party antiwar mobilization page http://www.gp.org/peace.html
PeaceEconomy.org http://www.peaceeconomy.org
United for Peace and Justice http://www.unitedforpeace.org
search: pce, fpol, irq, cpr
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