The political establishment is not united behind the Bush Administration’s policy of forced “regime change” in Iraq. The rest of the world, and a good part of the American public, are also unconvinced. Make your voice heard. Write your elected officials in Washington urging them to show restraint and respect for international opinion (contact information at www.congress.com). Help make the war against Iraq a key issue in this fall’s Congressional elections–see how in ten steps at the website of the National Network to End the War Against Iraq, an umbrella group of more than seventy peace and justice, student and faith-based organizations (www.endthewar.org).
Sign an online petition opposing US adventurism in Iraq. One such petition is sponsored by moveon.org, the citizen action group that in 1998 collected the signatures of more than a million people opposed to the impeachment of President Clinton. Add your name to the Campaign of Conscience Peace Pledge to Stop the Spread of War to Iraq, organized by the American Friends Service Committee and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, among others (www.peacepledge.org). Participate in one of the antiwar marches and protests scheduled coast to coast. You can find information on upcoming events at www.unitedforpeace.org, a new site launched by Global Exchange. If you’re planning an event or teach-in, check out the Iraq Speakers Bureau (www.iraqspeakers.org), a project of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, which provides access to policy experts, diplomats, former UN officials, human rights activists and public health researchers.
See The Nation‘s special antiwar web page (www.thenation.comdirectory/view.mhtml?t=040307), where you can find a complete collection of relevant Nation material. Also included are a list of nine critical questions that can be clipped or copied for inclusion in letters to your representatives, friends, newspaper editors and others, and a series of activist and educational links.