Direct Action to Stop the War :: Press Conference

Statement of R. Warren Langley Opposing the US preemptive invasion of Iraq in March 2003

My name is Warren Langley and I would like to tell you why I am opposed to the preemptive invasion of Iraq by US-led forces.

There are many ways to reduce the threat that Iraq and Saddam Hussein pose to the US and to the world. Intrusive inspections, constant pressure, and continuous over-flights coupled with the joint rather than the unilateral threat of consequences is the obvious first option. We should work with the rest of the world through the UN to minimize the threat of Saddam Hussein rather then start a war that will cause death, destruction, and harm to the people of Iraq and the allied military forces. Disarmament is a valid goal and a critical outcome; regional destabilization and regime change are not. Democracy will never follow unilateral conquest. Beyond the direct human cost of an Iraq invasion, the economic and political consequences are monumental. The increased risk of terrorist attacks and anti-American sentiment worldwide as well as the tremendous sum of money and resources that will be diverted from vitally needed health, education, and other domestic needs will be felt for years

There may come a time when there is no alternative but to invade Iraq but that time is not now. If enough of us can make our voices heard, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfield and Mr. Powell will have to consider other alternatives instead of continuing along the single-minded path toward war that they have been on for the past 18 months.

If you looked at my background, you would ask why I take such a public stand against the war. I grew up in the South, my Dad was a WW II POW, I graduated from the US Air Force Academy, spent 15 years in the active Air Force and am now a Retired Lt. Colonel in the Air Force Reserves. I have and still do strongly support our military forces and believe that it is necessary to maintain a strong military both for our own defense and to make the world a safer and better place to live. I have also spent a long career in business including time in the defense and airline industries culminating with 12 years in the financial services industry, the last three being as President and COO of the Pacific Stock Exchange.

I have always worked from within the Establishment and I have always been a rule-follower rather than a rule-breaker thinking that if a rule was wrong, change it, don't break it first.

So I am surprised to be here today telling you that, to stop the war, I am willing to "break the rules" and asking you to join me in "breaking the rules" so loudly that we are heard by the President and his administration to convince them to find a way to peace not war. We have to be heard like the people were heard about civil rights in the 60's and the Vietnam War in the 60's and 70's. People like you and me do matter and we can be heard. If we all believe that and do something about it -- something more than talk, march, and discuss--- then we can help find peace and security for the US, Iraq, and the world.

Statement of Kate Raphael, Queer Cluster

I'm proud to stand here today to honor a long tradition of queer anti-war activism. Most of you probably don't know that during the Vietnam War, two gay men got jobs as extras in the San Francisco Opera so they could unfurl a banner onstage that read, 'Fags Say Stop the War.' There are thousands of queers here today (right?) to join with every other community to say NO TO GENOCIDE. Because that is what our government has already committed in Iraq and we will not allow any more of it.

We are here, unfortunately, for the same reasons we were here in 1990: because our government, which claims to care about American lives, refuses to provide life-saving AIDS prevention information and materials to kids, and cares little about the lives of girls and women, who die every day from lack of access to safe abortions or contraceptives. We're here because a government that claims to care about our security does not intervene in the most dangerous place in this country: the nuclear family, where three women are killed every day by husbands or partners, where one in four girls and one in five boys is molested or raped. We're here because Don't Ask, Don't Tell Don't Cut It. It's a discriminatory policy that is used disproportionately against lesbians and queer people of color. We demand options for queer youth that don't involve learning to kill. We say, Don't Join, Don't Go, Don't Fight. Ban the Military, not the Queers.

We're here to demand money for jobs, AIDS care, welfare, hormone treatments, schools, abortions, queer youth programs, dental dams. But if there were all the money we need for all of those things, we still would say, scrap the military budget. No War. Fund human needs.

We're here because the government of Israel is already using the preparation for war to intensify its campaign of terror to drive the Palestinian people from their land. I know this well, because I just returned from three months in the occupied West Bank. I can tell you that my neighbors were terrified about a coming transfer, which means ethnic cleansing. They know what they're talking about. Some of them already lost their homes in 1948, again in 1967 and yet again during settlement expansion in the Oslo period. I, personally, will not allow this issue to be set aside or buried.

We are here, as we all must be, in a spirit of unity. We need to stand behind the organizations which have brought out over a million people to protest a war that has not begun -- and that must not begin. That doesn't mean we ignore our differences. Our diversity is our strength. It means that queers need to come out in force against the 'special registration' of immigrants and the imprisonment of Arab Americans like Farouk Abdel-Muhti.

It also means those of you who are not queer, and even those of you who don't like queers, need to lift up your voices to condemn the Egyptian government's imprisonment of gay men for the crime of dancing together, and the Saudi government execution of crossdressers. Both of these assaults on human rights by repressive governments supported by our government have increased in the last year. It means you must join us in demanding that charges be dropped against the members of Gay Shame who were attacked by San Francisco police and then arrested in front of the LGBT Community Center last week.

It means you can join us now in saying, WE'RE HERE, WE'RE QUEER, WE'RE OUT AGAINST THE WAR.

Press Statement by Rayan El-Amine (Arab American community and Anti-Capitalist Cluster member)

As a member of the Arab-American community, I want to fully support the "day after" actions against the war in Iraq. Arab Americans have been targeted by an administration that has used racism, fear and the events of September 11th, to attack our community abroad and at home. We feel that we share a historical role with other immigrant communities like Asian Americans, Latinos and African Americans who came before us in fighting racism at home and unjust wars abroad.

We intend to show that despite the attacks on our civil liberties and a government that refuses to represent us in the halls of Congress or in the White House - our opposition to this war will be heard. Arab-Americans, South Asians, and other targeted community members will join thousands of others who are against the war and we will represent ourselves in the streets.

The US war on Iraq is not a war to liberate anyone in the Middle East, but in fact it is a war about profits, oil and empire. The only people that will benefit from such imperial escapades are the corporations, weapons peddlers, and self-serving politicians who hope to take advantage of people