NO WAR ON IRAN! NO NUKES!

United for Peace and Justice opposes any military action against Iran, as well as covert action and sanctions. We reject the doctrine of "preventive war." All diplomatic solutions must be pursued.

President Bush has refused to rule out a U.S. nuclear attack on Iran if Iran doesn't halt its uranium enrichment activities, declaring on April 18th: "All options are on the table."

United for Peace and Justice calls upon the U.S. Congress and the United Nations Security Council to oppose military action against Iran, uphold the law, support diplomatic solutions to the crisis, and put an end to U.S. nuclear hypocrisy. We urge you to add your signature to two letters:

TELL CONGRESS: Oppose any attack on Iran or covert military actions there.

TELL THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL: Don't cave into Washington on Iran.

With the majority of the people in this country now opposing the war in Iraq, it's almost inconceivable that the Bush Administration could be planning to launch another illegal, immoral war.

But as Seymour Hersh revealed in the April 17th New Yorker, "While publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, [the Bush Administration] has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups." Even more alarming, Hersh wrote that "American Naval tactical aircraft, operating from carriers in the Arabian Sea, have been flying simulated nuclear-weapons delivery missions.... since last summer," and the Bush administration is giving serious consideration to the use of nuclear weapons.

The Washington Post independently reported that Pentagon planners are "contemplating tactical nuclear devices" to take out deeply buried underground targets in Iran.

On April 28, the United Nations Security Council will be called upon to consider a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency evaluating Iran's nuclear program. The IAEA is unequivocal that there is no evidence that Iran has diverted nuclear materials to weapons.

Yet escalating rhetoric from Washington continues to threaten sanctions and other "painful consequences" against Iran. Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, reiterating that a military operation has already begun inside Iran, told Amy Goodman, "It's a very serious question about the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military operations in Iran."

Make your voice heard. Add your signature to these two letters today. And, if you haven't already done so, sign AfterDowningStreet's petition to President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Join us in New York on April 29 to March for Peace, Justice and Democracy!

NO WAR ON IRAN! NO NUKES!

There's far more at stake than just making sure that the White House doesn't get away with lying to the people of this country again. One Pentagon adviser Hersh interviewed "warned, as did many others, that bombing Iran could provoke 'a chain reaction' of attacks on American facilities and citizens throughout the world: 'What will 1.2 billion Muslims think the day we attack Iran?'"

We already know all too well the tragic disconnect between how the Bush administration and its neocon advisers think an invasion will turn out, and what will really happen. As Rev. Jesse Jackson writes: "the White House is said to believe that the bombing will turn the people against the mullahs who run the government. That will counter the experience of every bombing effort since the invention of the airplane."

An attack on Iran will result in thousands of deaths, not only in Iran but likely throughout the region. It will also increase popular support for the Iranian regime and make us all less safe.

Rep. Peter DeFazio is sending a letter to President Bush reminding him that he is constitutionally bound to seek Congressional approval before making any preemptive military strikes against Iran. He is also planning to introduce a resolution expressing the same. While it's important to remind the President about the rule of law, making sure Congress gets to sign off on attacking Iran isn't good enough. We can't allow Congress to give the Bush administration another blank check to spend ever more lives and money on its oil-hungry agenda.

As Rev. Jackson says: "The question is whether the Congress and the American people will roll over or stand up and call the administration to account."

More than three years ago, when Washington falsely claimed that weapons of mass destruction in Iraq threatened international peace and security, the United Nations Security Council recognized the lies, rejected the pressure, and refused to approve any use of force. On that occasion the United States and United Kingdom invaded anyway, launching an aggressive war in direct violation of the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Charter. Iraqis and others in the region continue to pay the price for that invasion today. Now the Council must avoid adopting a resolution regarding Iran that gives Washington any basis whatever for claiming that U.S. military action is somehow enforcing UN decisions.

UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

Calls for the global elimination of nuclear weapons. While Washington accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear power program, in violation of its obligations as a non-nuclear nation under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the U.S. is itself in blatant violation of its own NPT obligation to eliminate its vast and sophisticated nuclear arsenal. There is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. The U.S., however, retains a nuclear arsenal of 10,000 weapons, nearly 2,000 on hair-trigger alert. With 480 tactical nuclear weapons deployed in 6 NATO countries, the U.S. is the only country with nuclear weapons deployed on foreign soil. And the U.S. is modernizing its existing nuclear weapons and publicly making plans to develop and produce new ones. This system of international nuclear apartheid is dangerous and unsustainable. The United States should demonstrate leadership by fulfilling its own disarmament obligation under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. This will require the U.S. to stop blocking negotiations on abolition and to take meaningful steps towards the elimination of its vast and sophisticated nuclear arsenal. Efforts to resolve any dispute with Iran should include promoting negotiations, including with nuclear-armed Israel, on a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East.

Calls for the development and promotion of sustainable energy alternatives. We need to stop going to war for oil. And we need to address climate change. But nuclear power is not the answer. Every nuclear power plant is a potential bomb factory and a source of radioactive waste that will remain deadly forever. To address the inherent risk of diversion to weapons posed by civilian nuclear technology anywhere, the U.S. should promote sustainable energy alternatives, at home and internationally.