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Let council’s anti-war stance be a model

Diana Perry
Thursday October 10, 2002

To the Editor: 

 

The Berkeley City Council has shown wisdom and foresight in unanimously passing a pro-peace resolution which supports Representative Barbara Lee’s “Alternatives to War” amendment (Daily Planet, Sept. 9). Members of the council have now added their voices to the global outcry against a pre-emptive strike on Iraq; they join Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the World Council of Churches, the California Federation of Teachers, most of the Bay Area’s congressional representatives, as well as statesmen and diplomats around the world who have expressed grave concerns about the imminent threat of war. As Congress debates this issue, Americans need to ask themselves what kind of future we are creating. Do we want the United States to work cooperatively, as a member of the world community, acting through the United Nations to seek solutions for the problems of poverty, violence, terrorism, global warming, and environmental pollution which confront us all? Or, do we wish to dominate and control the rest of the world through aggression and intimidation, ignoring international law, breaking treaties and agreements, departing from conventional codes of morality and making corporate profit the basis of our foreign policy? Since the combined nuclear arsenals of the world can now easily annihilate all human life, shouldn’t we be doing everything possible to prevent war and promote mutual disarmament? Let’s lead the world in seeking peaceful resolutions to conflict instead of preparing for endless war. 

 

Diana Perry 

Berkeley