From the Friends Committee on National Legislation – a Quaker Lobby for Public Interest 

Iran is the Key to Iraq

This week, members of Congress spent long hours questioning generals and administration officials about U.S. strategy in Iraq. According to the top general in Iraq, the war isn’t going to end soon. “We haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel,” General David Petraeus said. The general went on to blame many of the problems in Iraq on Iran. President Bush this morning added his voice to the chorus blaming Iran for the problems in Iraq and insisted that Congress should now approve more money for war.

The tragedy is there is a way to achieve peace in Iraq. The administration needs to be willing to stop blaming Iran and start working with that country. Yet administration officials this week appeared intent on ratcheting up the diplomatic and military pressure on Iran. In testimony that was at times confusing and contradictory, the top U.S. officials said Iran was both responsible for inciting some of the recent fighting in Iraq and responsible for negotiating a ceasefire to stop the violence.

If Iran has this much influence, shouldn’t the United States start talking to Iran about how to end the Iraq war? Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, without preconditions, were a key recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. A bipartisan group of senators and many people in the U.S. military also have endorsed negotiations.

Take Action

Urge your senators to cosponsor legislation introduced by Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey (S. 2130) that would organize a diplomatic offensive in the region to talk with Iraq’s neighbors and help bring an end to the war in Iraq.

This legislation will not end the war in Iraq, but it will encourage the administration to engage in the type of substantive diplomatic negotiations that could open up the possibility of a way out of Iraq. If the administration can’t see light at the end of the tunnel, then perhaps Congress needs to begin looking for that light.

Find Out More

FCNL’s response to the administration’s testimony.

What senators from both sides of the aisle said this week about the importance of diplomacy and talking with Iran.

More about FCNL’s Iraq Peace Campaign.

Background on the bill, S. 2130.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

“Political Observations” (1795-04-20); also in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison (1865), Vol. IV, p. 491

Sandra R Mackie
Gettysburg, PA
Sponsor a woman survivor of war @
www.womenforwomen.org

Stanley & David in Qom, Iran

Stanley Campbell will show slides and speak about his trip to Iran at the

Mr. Campbell has served 20 years as executive director of Rockford Urban Ministries, and has been on numerous peace missions including Nicaragua in 1985; Guatemala in 1986; a return trip with Vietnam veterans in 1987; and the occupied territories of Israel in 1988 during the first intifada. Mr. Campbell has also joined a Volunteers In Mission/UMCOR work camp to Sarajevo, Bosnia, in 1996, and a delegation of the National Council of Churches to Cuba in 2004

“We want to get the message out that if we could talk to the Iranians, so should our government,” says Mr. Campbell after his latest trip to Iran.

Contact: Douglas Thompson 309-264-8914; Razia 309-868-4218