Statement on Iraq War

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Us Foundation is part of an AD Hoc group started in Santa Barbara in January 2003 that is now global. Our intention is to gather forces to urge our government to consider alternatives to war. We have 41 Nobel Laureates already on board and we are building a very powerful coalition that is growing daily. This patriotic AD Hoc group formed as a response to our discomfort with our government's strategy of a preventive war on Iraq. We welcome your support of our position on a preventative war on Iraq.

 

Our AD Hoc Group has adopted a statement which fundamentally comes from the Physicians for Social Responsibility's statement on which we have gathered many powerful and influential groups to co-sign on to. Our strategy is to deliver this statement by as direct a means as possible, usually by hand via respected and well known figures, to the key decision makers in the country. We anticipate that we will get news coverage from the press conferences we will hold in conjunction to these events.

 

We want to show that there is a large and powerful cross-section of the population that believes that there are alternatives to a preventative war and to urge for more exploration of such measures.

 

Below is the statement is our statement and also a representative listing of our co-signers. Our wish is that you are in agreement and support of our statement, to show more solidarity and unity in the peace efforts that are rising up throughout the world.

 

 

 

To:  The American Governmental Representatives

 

"The undersigned oppose a preventive war against Iraq without broad international support.  Military operations against Iraq may indeed lead to a relatively swift victory in the short-term.  But war is characterized by surprise, human loss, and unintended consequences.  Even with a victory, we believe that the medical, economic, environmental,  moral, spiritual, diplomatic, and  legal consequences of an American preventive attack on Iraq would undermine, not protect, U.S. security and standing in the world."

 

The members of our AD Hoc Group on the date of National Press Release on January 28, 2003 include:

 

41 Nobel Laureates

Physicians for Social Responsibility

True Majority

Social Venture Network

Parliament of World Religions

International Peace Council

International Interfaith Center at Oxford

Network of Socially Engaged Buddhists

Us Foundation

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Heartland Institute

Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs

 

 

We have a host of other co-signers including business leaders, interfaith organizations, non-profit organizations, our Congressional representative Lois Capps and other regional political leaders. We have supporters in Washington DC who will work with us to make our voices heard. We are continuing to gather more significant and credible co-signers and know that working in tandem with other like minded groups we will make a peaceful difference.

 

You may join our voices in calling for further exploration of means to solve conflicts with alternatives to war by signing on to our statement.

 

 

New York Times news article on January 28, 2003:

 

Nobel Laureates Sign Against a War Without International Support

 

January 28, 2003

By WILLIAM J. BROAD

 

Forty-one American Nobel laureates in science and economics issued a declaration yesterday opposing a preventive war against Iraq without wide international support. The statement, four sentences long, argues that an American attack would ultimately hurt the security and standing of the United States, even if it succeeds.

 

The signers, all men, include a number who at one time or another have advised the federal government or played important roles in national security. Among them are Hans A. Bethe, an architect of the atom bomb; Walter Kohn, a former adviser to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Pentagon; Norman F. Ramsey, a Manhattan Project scientist who readied the Hiroshima bomb and later advised NATO; and Charles H. Townes, former research director of the Institute for Defense Analyses at the Pentagon and chairman of a federal panel that studied how to base the MX missile and its nuclear warheads.

 

In addition to winning Nobel prizes, 18 of the signers have received the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest science honor.

 

The declaration reads:

 

"The undersigned oppose a preventive war against Iraq

without broad international support. Military operations against Iraq may indeed lead to a relatively swift victory in the short term. But war is characterized by surprise, human loss and unintended consequences. Even with a victory, we believe that the medical, economic, environmental, moral, spiritual, political and legal consequences of an American preventive attack on Iraq would undermine, not protect, U.S. security and standing in the world."

 

Dr. Kohn, a Nobel chemist at the University of California

at Santa Barbara, organized the declaration.

 

"No voice was speaking against the war," he said. "So I

asked, `Can I somehow make myself useful?' and had the idea

of contacting my Nobel laureate friends and trying to rally them around a reasonable position."

 

Dr. Kohn said he eventually tried to contact all American

Nobel laureates in science and economics, who are thought

to number about 130. But some had died or were unreachable,

he said, while others never replied. Dr. Kohn said only six respondents declined to sign the declaration.

 

He said the signers included Democrats and Republicans

alike.

 

Patricia Halloran, an aide to Dr. Kohn, said that more signatures were expected in the next few days as laureates returned from foreign travels or caught up with their mail.

 

 

Occasionally, science Nobelists have banded together to

speak out, usually on topics of war and peace, arms and technology. In July 2000, 50 Nobel laureates urged President Bill Clinton to reject a proposed $60 billion missile defense system, arguing that it would be wasteful and dangerous. In October 1999, 32 Nobel laureates in physics urged the Senate to approve the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, calling it central to halting the spread of nuclear arms.

 

The Iraq declaration is to be circulated on Capitol Hill by Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Lois Capps, both California Democrats.

 

The signers are these, with E designating economics; P, physics; C, chemistry; and M, medicine or physiology:

 

George A. Akerlof E

Philip W. Anderson P

Paul Berg C

Hans A. Bethe P

Nicolaas Bloembergen P

Paul D. Boyer C

Owen Chamberlain P

Leon N. Cooper P

James W. Cronin P

Robert F. Curl Jr. C

Val L. Fitch P

Robert F. Furchgott M

Sheldon L. Glashow P

Roger Guillemin M

Herbert A. Hauptman C

Alan J. Heeger C

Louis J. Ignarro M

Eric R. Kandel M

Har Gobind Khorana M

Lawrence R. Klein E

Walter Kohn C

Leon M. Lederman P

Yuan T. Lee C

William N. Lipscomb C

Daniel L. McFadden E

Franco Modigliani E

Ferid Murad M

George E. Palade M

Arno A. Penzias P

Martin L. Perl P

William D. Phillips P

Norman F. Ramsey P

Robert Schrieffer P

William F. Sharpe E

Jack Steinberger P

Joseph H. Taylor Jr. P

Charles H. Townes P

Daniel C. Tsui P

Harold E. Varmus M

Robert W. Wilson P

Ahmed H. Zewail C