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 Church Women United in Connecticut

A CALL TO PEACE
Adopted unanimously, November 20, 2002, by the State Board of
Church Women United in Connecticut

        Church Women United was born in 1941, the very week of Pearl Harbor, and ever since has been known as a voice for peaceful solutions to conflict, whether in the local unit or in a global context.  The road to peace must trust communication and mediation, not confrontation or dictation.  Church Women United was present some 50 years ago at the birth of the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organization and has upheld the role of the UN ever since as a means to bring about peace and justice.

        Once again the United States is on the brink of war, this time with Iraq, with our President and most of his Cabinet stating that "we must go it alone" if we (i.e. the Cabinet) disagree with the findings of the UN Inspectors,  not even trusting our own CIA nor the retired military personnel who see no need for this and warn against a unilateral, preemptive attack.  If indeed Iraq is found to have weapons of mass destruction, then we must work with the United  Nations in the disarming.

        A war with Iraq at this time would rain down untold horror on a nation of people already suffering from the results of the Gulf War and ten years of sanctions, and from the discrimination and harassment of their own leaders.  An attack by the US would be a signal to all the people of the Middle East and the rest of the world that the United States doesn't care about the people of the world.  It would undergird the feeling of the rest of the world that we are a nation which cares only about our economic and military power, our supplies of oil for our SUVs; that we are arrogant and heartless.  Is that who we really are?

        Terrorists are born out of fear and hopelessness.  Our very heavy foot, stepping on the peoples of other nations, has become the crucible for the birth of terrorism.  The more we continue the "war on terror" in Afghanistan, the more terrorists rise up among people who find themselves without hope.  We must also add that, parallel to the bombing, we are thankful to see some positive changes in Afghanistan in areas of education and women's issues.

        In many places of the world we have bankrolled and armed governments to carry out war on their own people or else on their neighbors, including arming Iraq against its neighbor Iran a generation ago.  And when the people rise up to defend themselves, we call them Revolutionaries and Terrorists.  We must stop sending weaponry to Israel and funding them to build more settlements on the farms and vineyards and orchards of their neighbors, the Palestinians, who have inhabited that land for generations.   We must start at the beginning and ask, "Why are there terrorists?"

        Our leaders, with the help of the media, with their unceasing talk of possible terrorist attacks, have frightened many of the American People into thinking war is imminent and necessary.

       We are thankful that the US  decided to wait for the United Nations to carry out their inspections, and that Saddam Hussein and his Parliament agreed to the inspections.   At this time we call upon our leaders and all the American people, including the media to THINK PEACE,  to  work for justice for the littlest and the least, to learn to communicate and negotiate rather than choosing war as the first or only solution.

Signed,     Betsy Work, President, Church Women United in Connecticut

                Miriam Bergamini, CWU-UN liaison for Connecticut

                Betty Allen, Coordinator of Ecumenical Action, CWU in CT