Win Without War Faces War With a Three-Prong Plan
By Heidi Taylor
WASHINGTON—With a U.S. attack on Iraq seemingly inevitable, leaders of the Win Without War coalition met in the capital Wednesday to announce plans for dissent against the war. Former Maine Congressman Tom Andrews, the national director of Win Without War, said that the group remained “steadfastly opposed to the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive attack and the reckless use of military power.”
Win Without War has planned a “global citizen’s movement” they hope will become a force for peace, Andrews said, detailing a three-pronged approach, including candlelight peace vigils, an e-mail and snail-mail support network for troops in the Middle East called “Operation Dear Abby” and a “Citizen Declaration” against the Bush administration’s first-strike doctrine that people worldwide will be encouraged to sign.
War protests have been going on in the North Shore area for some time, according to Barbara Hildt, spokeswoman for the Newburyport chapter of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND), part of the Win Without War coalition. Hildt said that WAND and other area groups have been involved in antiwar actions since September, when President Bush, in his address to the United Nations, threatened war against Iraq if the country did not disarm.
Hildt called Bush’s Monday night ultimatum and the war itself “a very sad and avoidable tragedy,” adding that the President simply did not give negotiations a fair chance.
”We are grossly under-prepared” to face the humanitarian catastrophe of an attack on Baghdad and other Iraqi urban regions, Andrews said at the Washington meeting, adding that aside from thousands of expected U.S. and Iraqi casualties, Americans are facing a multi-year occupation of Iraq and unknown economic costs as that country rebuilds
“This U.S.-led war will threaten our economy, jeopardize our security and cost countless lives,” Washington’s WAND Director Darcy Scott Martin said at the meeting, adding that the group has pledged to take protest action.
In Newburyport, Hildt expects a lot of demonstrations, saying that WAND recently sent e-mails asking people to gather for a candlelight vigil in Market Square on the war’s first day.
“People that are for peace are concerned our stand for peace not be interpreted as not supportive of the troops,” Hildt said. For the vigil, WAND has asked people to dress in black, as a way to show “solidarity in mourning” for the many U.S. and Iraqi casualties they expect from the war.
Published in The Newburyport Daily News, The Gloucester Daily News, and The Salem News in Massachusetts.
