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Griswold joins church leaders in warning against military action in Iraq
By James Solheim
2002-210
9/12/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold has joined a wide-ranging ecumenical group of 48 church leaders in opposing military action against Iraq. In a letter to President George W. Bush, released today, the church leaders acknowledged that 'Hussein poses a threat to his neighbors and to his own people [but] we nevertheless believe it is wrong, as well as detrimental to U.S. interests' to launch an attack on Iraq.
The letter emerged from Churches for Middle East Peace, a Washington-based national coalition of churches and religious organizations. 'We oppose on moral grounds the United States taking further military action against Iraq now,' said the letter. Citing the probable humanitarian consequences, civilian casualties, and the potential political chaos of such a war, the church leaders noted that U.S. military forces could easily destabilize the region, with possible catastrophic results, and further increase anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and Gulf.
'It is detrimental to U.S. interests to take unilateral military action when there continues to be strong multilateral support for a new weapons inspection regime and when most governments in Europe and the Middle East resist supporting military action,' the letter said. 'The preemptive use of military force by the United States to deal with proliferation problems, as serious as they may be, establishes a dangerous precedent, particularly for other nations that feel threatened by the weapons capabilities of their neighbors.'
'We do not need to march down the path to Armageddon,' said General Secretary Bob Edgar of the National Council of Churches (NCC). 'Preemptive military action now being contemplated by the Administration cannot be morally justified.'
Releasing their letter after President Bush's statement at the United Nations General Assembly, the leaders insisted that the president work through the U.N. in peaceful efforts to resolve the crisis. The issue is 'how does the U.S. work with and through the U.N. to implement the consensus of the international community,' said the Rev. Stan DeBoe, chair of Churches for Middle East Peace. 'We are urging the president to uphold the values of our great country by working closely with the community of nations, not by rattling sabers nor by threatening to overthrow governments with force,' he said.
(The full text of the letter and the signatories is available on the web at www.cmep.org/iraqletter.htm.)
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