A VIEW FROM THE UNITED STATES

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday February 04, 2003 23:20 by Mary Pat Gallagher - New Jersey Peace Action mpgmiles at earthlink dot net Maplewood, New Jersey, USA

The growing public sentiment in the US against an unjust war

I want to commuicate to the people of Ireland and members of the world community some not atypical views concerning Bush's plan for preemptive war on Iraq. To a certain extent, it's a counterpoint to the comment from a New Yorker posted earlier.

There is very little real support for Bush's oil war. The vast majority of people with whom I speak are at least uncomfortable with the notion of an unprovoked war on Iraq but they are often not certain in their opposition because they do not feel they can make a difference or are still so traumatized by Sept. 11 that when Bush and his axis of oil invoke the threat of terrorism, they lose their ability to think straight.

On the other hand, there are a growing number of people like my 74-year old mom (never an activist about anything til now) who are passionately opposed and our numbers are growing. We have been vigiling, marching, leafletting, petitioning, writing letters to the editor, getting our towns to pass anti-war resolutions, etc.

Just this fall, my parents, who are both in their mid-70's, joined me in picketing the office of a Congressman who voted for Bush's war resolution. They are not political activists. My mom is a house wife and my dad a retired NYC police officer and they live in a parish that lost 30 people on Sept. 11. But the thought of the horror and destruction of war sicken them more and more. And they don't want their grandkids dying for nothing, really worse than nothing.

I stretch out a hand of solidarity to the people of conscience in Ireland and elsewhere who stand against the idea of preemptive war and further death and hardship inflicted upon the already suffering people of Iraq by a rogue US government. Together we will stop this.

Please do not judge Americans by the acts and rhetoric of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice-Wolfowitz, etal. After all, we didn't elect Bush. It was a judicial coup.

If you want to learn about how ordinary Americans are standing up against war, like their brothers and sisters in Ireland and elsewhere, please visit
www.nowarnj.org and www.njpeaceaction.org

We'll be together in spirit with you on Feb. 15 as we all march for a better world than the cruel, murderous, blood and oil-soaked one Bush wants to inflict upon us all. (Though have you heard NYC is trying to deny us a march permit?)