Posted by andreas from p3EE3BFE0.dip.t-dialin.net (62.227.191.224) on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 at 1:27PM :
Code Pink 4 Change Vigil
Lafayette Park-White House
Washington, DC
January 27, 2003
JUST DON'T SAY YOU DIDN'T KNOW
Alternatives to Endangering Our Children by Escalating the War against Iraq*
Thomas J. Nagy**, Ph.D.
George Washington University
School of Business & Public Management
Washington, D.C
nagy@gwu.edu
home.gwu.edu/~nagy
Assumption: Time Desperately Short to Avert Endangering Our Children by Killing
More Iraqi Children AKA Collateral Damage.
Q 0: Isn't SH an evil dictator?
Ans. The peace movement never supported arming SH or arming anyone. SH's funds
and anthrax, etc. came largely from the U.S. Government Ask SH's former buddy,
Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld.
Q 1: What is the official definition of Terrorism anyway?
Ans.: DOD, Field Manual 100-20, Ch. 3, p. 1:
"The DOD defines terrorism as the unlawful use of-or threatened use of force or
violence against individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or
societies, often to achieve political, religious or ideological objectives".
Q 2 Will the US Government Resort to Terrorism if it Escalates the War against
Iraq? Will US bombs turn huge numbers of Iraqi kids into "collateral damage?
Ans. The U.S. Government revealed the true answer to that one-read it yourself
on the Internet. Weep for Iraqi children as well as for our children and
children everywhere.
In the official, approved "Strategic Attack Doctrine 2-1.2, dated 1998, signed
by the head of AF Doctrine, Major General Keys, the U.S. Government describes
its actions in Desert Storm I. These actions appear under the heading,
"Elements of Effective Operations". So it also predicts what will happen if
there's a Desert Storm II.
p. 26 "The electrical attacks proved extremely effective…The loss of
electricity shut down the capital's water treatment plants and led to a public
health crisis from saw sewage dumped in the Tigris River…In the following week,
Tomahawk land attack missiles and coalition aircraft reduced every major city in
Iraq to the same unhappy situation."
Notice: This official doctrine constitutes terrorism by the DOD's own
definition. It also directly violates Protocol Additional 1, Article 54, par. 2
of the Geneva Convention "It is prohibited to attack, destroy or render useless
…whatever the motive."
Q3 How bad was the "unhappy situation of every major city in Iraq that resulted
from the U.S. led bombings?
Ans. The May 2001 Contributor's Corner of the U.S. Air Force's Air and Space
Power Chronicles at p1, par. 2 says:
"A key example of such dual-use targeting was the destruction of Iraqi
electrical power facilities in Desert Storm…destruction of these facilities shut
down water purification and sewage plants. As a result, epidemics of
gastroenteritis, cholera, and typhoid broke out, lead to perhaps as many as
100,000 civilian deaths and a doubling of the infant mortality rate."
Q4 What alternatives won't endanger our kids, their kids, our military people,
their military people?
Ans. Supporting Americans and others who voluntarily go to Iraq to protect with
their bodies "objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population
such as …drinking water installations and supplies," would certainly decrease
the probability of war.
Q5 Has anyone done that? Is anyone doing it now?
Ans. In September/October of last year, I did along with others in support of
"The Iraq Peace Team" and "Generations for Peace".
Look at BBC, a former US Marine is leading several busloads of volunteers to
Iraq now.
Q6 Is this idea inspired or absurd?
Can it possibly work?
Ans. Yes, it was tried during the U.S. sponsored Contra war where our puppet
army killed health and education workers in Nicaragua - soft targets as the US
government called them.
BUT
Not even one health or education worker was attacked by the Contra terrorists if
there was even a single international observer present. See Nagler, M. Is There
No Other Way? The Search for a Nonviolent Future, Berkeley Hills Books, 2001.
For an excellent review go to www.commondreams.org/views02/0309-01.htm
Generations for Peace http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/ and
www.prairienet.org/cpt/archives/2002/aug02/0007.html
Iraq Peace Team www.iraqpeaceteam.org/
References (Please read them yourself to see if you agree with my conclusions.)
1) http://www.au.af.mil/au/database/projects/ay2000/acsc/00-205.pdf
Gingras, J.L. & Ruby T.Z., "Morality in Modern Aerial Warfare," Maxwell Air
Force Base Air and Staff College, Air University, April 2000. See pp. 14, 25,
34,
2) http://www.maxwell.af.mil/au/aul/aupress/SAAS_Theses/Griffith/griffith.pdf
Griffith, T. E. "Strategic Attack of National Electrical Systems," Maxwell
Air Force Base, School of Advanced Airpower Studies, October 1994. See p11*, 16,
3) www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/cc/Rizer.html
Rizer, "Bombing Duel Use Targets: Legal, Ethical & Doctrinal Perspectives." Air
& Space Power Chronicles, May 2001.
4) http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/service_pubs/afd2_1_2.pdf
Strategic Attack: Air Force Doctrine Document 2-1.2, 20 May 1998, pp. 25,
26.
*This speech will soon be at home.gwu.edu/~nagy so you can click on the links.
**Member, The Tikkun Community and the International Association of Genocide
Scholars
Speaker on Panel on sanctions against Iraq as grave violation of Geneva
Convention or genocide at DOD's Joint Services Committee on Professional Ethics,
2001.
Parent, pacifist, and professor, former postdoctoral fellow in public health,
Johns Hopkins University, ex-refugee/displaced person
-- andreas
-- signature .