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December 23, 2002

President Jimmy Carter
The Carter Center
One Copenhill
453 Freedom Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30307

Dear President Carter:

Traprock Peace Center has been working nationally and internationally to try to stop the war with Iraq. The US Administration seems determined to have a war despite worldwide opposition, and is marching toward war even while Iraq is cooperating with inspections.

We are writing to propose to you that Nobel Peace Prize Laureates go to Iraq at this time. We encourage you to take the lead on such an effort.

Other delegations are going, such as the Iraq Peace Journey, which left on December 8 and returned just two days ago. This delegation was composed of Catholic religious leaders and was organized by Rick McDowell, who has accompanied 14 delegations to Iraq, including a delegation of Nobel Laureates. Voices in the Wilderness has been going, of course, and is sending another delegation that will bring aid to hospitals, some of it collected by Traprock Peace Center on December 10, 2002.

These are fine efforts but would not deter the Administration from starting a war. A delegation of Nobel Laureates would deter war, in our opinion. Sunny Miller would volunteer to accompany a delegation of Nobel Laureates, if that would be helpful.

This is not a new idea, and others have no doubt suggested it. On our part, we had suggested a campaign involving the Nobel Peace Laureates on October 1, 2002 to friends at the Stop the War Coalition in the UK (http://www.stopwar.co.uk.). We had approached the Stop the War coalition because it is the single largest and most effective coalition in the world against the war. We also have been in contact with groups that work with Peace Laureates but have not had a response to the idea.

I would not be surprised if Laureates have considered such an action already. It seems to make sense. It would grab the attention of US media, the public and politicians. We believe that it would be an effective, perhaps the most effective, means to forestall a bombing campaign at this time.

Such an action by the Laureates would receive world-wide attention because of the moral weight that they would bring and because it would actually prevent the bombing. (Certainly, an intense bombing campaign that attacked the civilian infrastructure as well as military targets close to civilians would precede an invasion, as in the past. As you know, Iraq is still trying to recover from the destruction of its civil infrastructure, including water purification plants.)

In 1998, the US told the UN to pull its inspectors so that it could start a bombing campaign. Can one imagine the world outcry if the US administration decided to go ahead anyway if the Peace Laureates were there?

We’d like to close with some words about Traprock Peace Center. We were founded in 1979 and have a history of having primary roles on national campaigns dating back to the nuclear freeze campaign. Concerning Iraq, we have worked closely with Scott Ritter and had the leading role among peace organizations in the US with his work during the spring and summer. Our website gives some history of that work - http://grassrootspeace.org/rittercampaign.html. See also http://grassrootspeace.org/stopwar2002.html.

Out of the work with Scott Ritter we developed a relationship with Dr. Glen Rangwala, lecturer of politics at Cambridge University. He shared drafts of the Counter-Dossier (written with Alan Simpson MP for Labour Against the War) and its Addendum, a point by point refutation of Prime Minister Blair’s Dossier Against Iraq. On release of these documents in the UK, and with Dr. Rangwala's permission and encouragement, Traprock took the lead in the US in distributing the documents via press releases to US media and peace organizations - with well over 10,000 visitors to the web page with these documents - http://www.grassrootspeace.org/counter-dossier.html. We also published booklets and distributed the documents to members of Congress, first through personal visits (with the collaboration of the Washington office of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) and on National Emergency Lobby Day with the Education for Peace with Iraq Center, Peace Action, WILPF, the Sister's of Saint Joseph and other groups.

Recently, we have been working closely with Doug Rokke on a national campaign to bring to public awareness the dangers of depleted uranium munitions, the high casualty rates and continuing health problems among Gulf War veterans, and the faulty bio/chemical protective gear provided to US soldiers. The Washington Post and the NBC Evening News have taken up the defective equipment issue. (We had alerted the Post writer to this issue.) Our website gives more information on this work – please see http://grassrootspeace.org/depleteduranimum.html.

Also, we are working with student organizers and national peace organizations in fostering the growth of the student peace movement in the United States, and, with Stop the War in the UK, we are working to link student networks across the Atlantic. Our main student web page is found at http://grassrootspeace.org/students102602.html.

This work is bearing fruit, as a strong independent student peace movement is developing with ‘sister’ national student conferences scheduled for January 17, 2002 at George Washington University and San Francisco State University. Jeremy Corbyn, MP (Labour – Islington North) and a leading Labour MP working for peace, will address the student conference in DC and Helen Salmon, a leading British student organizer from Oxford, will attend the conference as an observer.

I have described a few of the many fine efforts by the international peace movement to stop the war. While I believe that these combined efforts have stalled the war, I do not believe that we will be able to prevent the war without your help.

Thank you for your consideration of our proposal. It’s not an easy thing to go to Iraq, especially during these times. Please do not hesitate to contact us for information or assistance.

Sincerely,

Sunny Miller, Executive Director
Charles Jenks, President
Traprock Peace Center

Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-7427; charlesjenks@gmail.com (Sunny)
413-773-1633; charlesjenks@gmail.com (Charlie)
Fax 413-773-7507
http://grassrootspeace.org

Page created January 3, 2002 by Charlie Jenks.