To our British Friends - "Save Us from Ourselves"

[Traprock Note: Why should we resign ourselves to British support for the war, when a large majority of British oppose it? We are told by our friends in the UK that many who do support it do so only because they want to preserve the special relationship they feel with Americans. Our position is that this war will ruin many relationships - including ones with the British - and that our friends need to say no when our leaders have gone off the deep end.

Traprock had an early letter writing campaign to British media - and David Keppel was a major contributor. See http://grassrootspeace.org/ukletters.html

David suggests that people consider writing to the Times and the Economist in the UK. Emails are: letters@thetimes.co.uk and letters@economist.com

As David suggests, letter writers have a much higher chance if they peg their comments to a specific article. They can read much online at http://www.thetimesonline.co.uk and http://www.economist.com.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-44-605435,00.html

THE TIMES (London)

March 10, 2003

International positions on war in Iraq

From Mr David Keppel

Sir, Jack Straw misjudges American politics when he warns France and Germany that they will "reap a whirlwind" if they push the Bush Administration into acting alone on Iraq (report, March 5). Mr Straw claims that unless the world accepts a preventive war that has already been unilaterally decided by President Bush, it will drive the United States towards dangerous unilateralism.

Meekly endorsing an action long planned by Mr Bush's most extreme advisers will hardly serve to restrain such extremism in future. If they see such weakness from the Europeans, they will continue to exploit it in places like North Korea and Iran.

Also, the fundamentalists in the White House should not be confused with the American public as a whole. Anti-war feeling and protests are growing much faster than they did over Vietnam.

A French 'non', a German 'nein', a Russian 'nyet', would meet warm applause among millions of Americans. A belated British"no" would immensely reinforce the international and domestic opposition and might still prevent a war that could ignite global terrorism.

Sincerely, DAVID KEPPEL,
davidkeppel@earthlink.net

Page created March 10, 2003 by Charlie Jenks