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Progressives say America's National Interests will Suffer Harm Joins Civil Rights, Business, Religious & Environmental Leaders
This broad coalition of major progressive civil rights, business, religious, and environmental leaders include: the NAACP; the National Organization for Women; Move On; the Sierra Club; the National Council of Churches; Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities; Working Assets; the Leadership Conference of Women Religious; Physicians for Social Responsibility; the Rainbow Push Coalition; and Women's Action for New Directions. The Keep America Safe: Win Without War statement is as follows: "We are patriotic Americans who share the belief that Saddam Hussein cannot be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction. We support rigorous UN weapons inspections to assure Iraq's effective disarmament. We believe that a preemptive military invasion of Iraq will harm American national interests. Unprovoked war will increase human suffering, arouse animosity toward our country, increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks, damage the economy and undermine our moral standing in the world. It will make us less, not more, secure. "We reject the doctrine -- a reversal of long-held American tradition -- that our country, alone, has the right to launch first-strike attacks. America is not that kind of country. We can achieve the valid U.S. and UN objective of disarming Saddam Hussein through legal diplomatic means. There is no need for war. Let us instead devote our resources to improving the security and well being of people here at home and around the world. As the Bush Administration prepares for battle, religious, civil rights and citizen organizations have banded together to promote disarming Iraq without war." National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director, Lorri L. Jean, echoed the sentiments of the founding members of the group: "The goal of this coalition is to mobilize a broad cross section of American society in opposition to Bush Administration calls for a unilateral invasion. That is a goal that the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force wholeheartedly supports.
NGLTF, says Ms. Jean, "joins Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President Jimmy Carter in believing that, 'The objective of any who sincerely believe in peace, clearly must be to exhaust every honorable recourse in the effort to save the peace.' " |
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Washington, D.C.-- Opposition to the possibly impending war against Iraq has been announced by The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). The nation's oldest gay civil rights organization has joined a new coalition: Keep America Safe: Win Without War.
Lorri L. Jean is the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force