A National Call for Nonviolent Resistance

To the Continuing War in Iraq

“The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.” — Dr. Martin Luther King

The war in Iraq continues to escalate, with more and more killed every day. The human toll has been enormous, claiming over 1,300 American lives and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives, while wounding, maiming and psychologically scarring hundreds of thousands more. This is not a war of liberation, or against terrorism. This is a war of empire building and corporate profiteering that threatens to destabilize Iraq for many years to come, while sowing new seeds of hate against the U.S. and fueling the cycle of violence and revenge.The war in Iraq is a war based on lies. It is a war which violates both the U.S. Constitution and our obligations under international law. Characterized by the use of torture, collective punishment, mass bombardment and the destruction of civilian areas, it is a war that shames us morally before the world. And it is a war that is devouring hundreds of billions of dollars, robbing us of resources desperately needed in our own country for health care, housing, education, and jobs.

The bloodshed and death in Iraq will continue until we — the people of the United States — bring this war to an end, and any hope for positive international support for Iraq will be impossible until the U.S. military occupation ends and U.S. troops leave. Democracy can not be delivered in a cluster bomb, nor can it be imposed from under a tank or at the end of a gun. True democracy resides in the will of the Iraqi people. We respect their dignity and sovereignty, and their right to control of their own country. We call for an end to the U.S. war of military occupation and the withdrawal of U.S. troops. We call upon all the members of the peace movement to join with the leaders chosen by a self-determining Iraq in seeking ways to heal the injuries inflicted upon that nation and its people by this war.

We Call for Nonviolent Resistance to the War in Iraq

Times of great injustice call for acts of conscience and courage. In the loving spirit and discipline of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day and others, we call on people to engage in acts and campaigns of noncooperation and active nonviolent resistance to the U.S. government, the military, the corporate merchants of war, and all institutions that feed the continuing conflict in Iraq.

To the millions who have marched, lobbied Congress or otherwise protested the war in Iraq, we call on you to continue your opposition, and to join together with others in nonviolent resistance to this immoral and unjust war. Our democratic voices of dissent joined with an unprecedented anti-war movement around the world. We must now build an equally unprecedented movement to nonviolently resist this war and bring it to an end. As the carnage increases and the military quagmire deepens in Iraq, the prospects for peace may seem dim and the momentum of war strong. But now more than ever is a time for dissent, not despair; for deepened commitment to peace, not complacency with war; for strengthened resistance, not weakened resolve.

To all who are sick of heart and conscience over the death and destruction in Iraq, we call on you to join us in nonviolent resistance to this war. For the sake of our humanity; for the sake of justice; for the sake of peace in Iraq, we must act now. And we cannot rest from our campaign of nonviolent resistance until our demands of peace and justice are met.

We call for expressions of nonviolent resistance that are many and varied. From the offices of Congresspersons and Senators to military recruiters and military bases, from our payment of federal taxes to the facilities where weapons are made that become the profits and sorrows of empire, we welcome each and every person who is moved to engage in or support noncooperation and nonviolent resistance, at whatever level, to take action.

To get more information about the Call for Nonviolent Resistance to the War and how you can get involved with nonviolent resistance efforts and campaigns, please go to our website at www.iraqpledge.org.