Can war with Iraq be avoided?

Social justice news
March 2003

Can war with Iraq be avoided?
Consumer group calls for federal safety standards on SUVs
CCHD cycle tour to publicize problem of U.S. poverty
CRS calls for increase U.S. role in fighting poverty
Nobel Laureates, 450 other economists fault tax cuts plan
U.S. bishops join 'Cover the Uninsured Week': March 10 - 16
U.S. church leaders ask Pope to addresss UN on Iraq

Can war with Iraq be avoided?
Even as rhetoric from the Bush administration now paints war with Iraq as inevitable, new efforts to undermine the momentum for war are being organized. American church leaders have called upon Pope John Paul II to speak against war at the Security Council at the UN in New York, and new protests against the war are planned in Washington and nationally on March 5 through 8—including a one day students' strike and a national work moratorium. More protests are planned on March 9, and six resolutions have been introduced before Congress in an attempt to slow the march to war. More are expected soon. The pope recently called Cardinal Pio Laghi, former nuncio to the United States and a longtime friend of the Bush family, out of retirement to take his message of peace directly to the president.

Meanwhile, an online emergency petition calls on the UN Security Council to reject war and back a beefed-up inspections regime for Iraq on March 6.

The efforts suggest a stepped up, almost frantic effort by the global and U.S. anti-war movement to alter what appears more and more like a firm commitment to war by the Bush administration. The coming days will tell if any of these efforts have had an effect on the Bush administration.

Resources:
Ash Wednesday prayer for peace
Not in our name calendar
United for Peace

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