Today we reprint the words of several:

From the resolutions of the Episcopal General Convention, Denver Colorado, July 2000:

Resolution C027: International Relations: Lifting Economic Sanctions Against the People of Iraq

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 73rd General Convention of The Episcopal Church in the United States of America urge the Security Council of the United Nations and the President of the United States to take immediate action to lift restrictions on normal trade in civilian goods with Iraq while retaining appropriate political sanctions and a strict embargo on military-related items; and be it further

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent to the member of the United Nations Security Council, the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Senate and House Committees on Foreign Affairs, and United States Senators and Representatives.

The taproot of violence in our society today is our intent to use nuclear weapons. Once we have agreed to that, all other evil is minor in comparison. Until we squarely face the question of our consent to use nuclear weapons, any hope of large-scale improvement of public morality is doomed to failure.

And from Gandhi:

Unless nations shed their desire of exploitation and the spirit of violence, of which war is the natural expression and the atom bomb the inevitable consequence, there is no hope for peace in the world.

Voices wishes to thank the Episcopal Church, and Fr. McSoreley, and Gandhi, and all the rest who work diligently for peace. The lives of the people of Iraq are dependent on our finding a way out of our need to inflict violence upon them. May they forgive us our use of nuclear armaments against them (in the form of depleted uranium) and also our deliberate program of starving their entire population, through the so-called ‘sanctions.’