[antiwar-van] Open Letter to Canadian Soldiers from Homes Not Bombs (fwd)

[Tony Tracy]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 14:06:56 -0500 (EST)
From: TASC <tasc at pop.web.ca>
Subject: Open Letter to Canadian Soldiers

The Following letter has been sent to the Canadian military and various
bases across the country. Feel free to distribute, to edit and put on your
own flyer for leafletting purposes. Many folks have come up with
suggestions, such as setting up safe coffeehouses near bases where
soldiers can come and talk, get advice, etc., and flyering at recruitment
offices.

Peace

Homes not Bombs
PO Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West
Toronto, ON M6C 1C0
tasc at web.ca


Open Letter to all Members of the
Canadian Armed Forces:


January, 2003
Friends,

As soldiers, you have sworn to protect Canada and Canadians, even at the
risk of your own lives. Few occupations require such dedicated commitment
and potential sacrifice, and we cannot help but feel in our hearts a touch
of the fear and anxiety which must be facing you and your families.

But Canada and Canadians are not under threat from the people of Iraq,
against whom a massive escalation of war is likely to be launched soon.

Most of the world is amazed that the U.S. is hellbent on war, desperately
seeking a pretext, any pretext, no matter what the cost, no matter if
there is no substantial reason offered. (Although the media only covers a
small percentage of it, we're sure you are aware of the massive
demonstrations against war across North America and Europe.)

To this moment, there has been not one shred of evidence of an Iraqi link
to Osama bin Laden, not one shred of evidence that Iraq is planning a war
of aggression against its neighbours, not one shred of evidence that Iraq
has the current capacity to launch weapons of mass destruction.

This is not to defend in any way the brutal dictatorship of Saddam
Hussein, but we need to ask ourselves why there is such a focus on Iraq
when Canada, the U.S., and U.K. support dozens of similarly brutal regimes
around the globe, all of which commit gross abuses of human rights. A
cursory glance at the website of a reputable organization such as Amnesty
International confirms this.

You likely have your own suspicions about this intentional war, which
clearly seems more about gaining Western control over Iraq's huge oil
reserves than unfounded allegations about weapons of mass destruction.
Indeed, just look at the casual response to North Korea's nuclear weapons
program, one far more advanced than anything Iraq possesses.

But you are probably not allowed to voice these concerns, because your
duty is to follow orders.

It is in this context that we want to speak with you as fellow Canadians
genuinely concerned about your safety as well as the welfare of the people
who have the most to lose in this planned war: the people of Iraq, already
suffering from the massive bombardment of 1991, from the deadly
radioactive legacy of over 300 tonnes of depleted uranium dropped on that
country, and the devastating sanctions which have claimed over a million
lives.

Indeed, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group International Physicians for
the Prevention of Nuclear War estimates immediate casualties of a war
against Iraq could number in excess of half a million people. This does
not include the massive refugee crisis, famine, and environmental disaster
that is likely to befall the region as well. Indeed, the United Nations
estimates 10 million Iraqis could be put at risk of disease and hunger
following an invasion, and failure to provide immediate assistance in such
a situation would prove lethal.

It is in such troubled times that we are all faced with difficult choices.
As soldiers, some of you have told us that yours is not to question but
simply to serve, to serve those who send you overseas to fight.

But we believe at this crucial time that as soldiers, you DO have a
choice: a choice to act morally, legally, safely, to avert the even
greater humanitarian disaster that awaits the Iraqi people.

Quite simply, we are encouraging you to lay down your weapons and refuse
to fight.

Under international and Canadian law, this is not only your right, it is
also your obligation under the below-mentioned Nuremberg Principles.

And as law-abiding citizens, we have a responsibility and a commitment to
support you in coming to and dealing with your decision not to fight.

If thousands of men and women like yourselves refused to fight, it would
make current and future war plans difficult, if not impossible, to carry
out.

We also write because you, like the veterans of the 1991 war against Iraq,
will likely return home and receive little or no support or compensation
whatsoever from the War Dept. in dealing with deadly Gulf War Syndrome
(radioactive poisoning from exposure to depleted uranium) and Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (suffered by one-third of Gulf War vets)

The white men who send you to war (John McCallum, Bill Graham, and John
Chretien, among others) will not be sharing with you some key information.

You have a right to know the following:

A. Like all wars, the escalation of the ongoing war against the Iraqi
people is illegal. It violates some of the most basic precepts of
international laws and treaties to which Canada is a party, including:

	*the Treaty Providing for the Renunciation of War as an Instrument
of National Policy (aka Kellogg-Briand Pact, agreed to in 1928)
	* the Declaration of St. Petersburg (Declaration Renouncing the
Use in Time of War of Explosive Projectiles Under 400 Grammes of Weight)
	* Resolution on the Non-Use of Force in International Relations
and Permanent Prohibition on the Use of Nuclear Weapons
	* the Charter of the United Nations ("all members shall refrain in
their international relations from the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity or political independence of any state."
	* Hague Convention on Land Warfare
	* Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating,
Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare
	* Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide
	* Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War (The Geneva Convention)
	* Convention on the Prohibition of Military or any Other Hostile
Use of Environmental Modification Techniques
	* the Nuremberg Principles, which define as a crime against peace
"planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a
war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or
participation in a common plan or conspiracy for accomplishment of any of
the foregoing."
	* the Canadian War Crimes Act.

B. Few Canadians likely know better than you that like in all wars,
soldiers risk returning, if they do return, horribly injured, traumatized,
sick, with a wide range of debilitating illnesses. They are greeted with
cold stone silence from the men who sent them to fight.  If you were to
find yourself in this situation, who would help you to demand full
compensation, medical treatment, therapy, whatever is necessary for you to
recover? We in the anti-war movement would like to say: call on us.

C. Violence simply does not work. If it did, wars would have ended
centuries ago. In the unlikely event that you do face serious armed
resistance from the Iraqi forces, it is quite possible that some of the
weapons or weapons components being aimed at you were made right here in
Canada, which continues to profit from a $5 billion per year war industry.

D. Under the Nuremberg Principles, you have an obligation NOT to follow
the orders of leaders who are preparing crimes against peace and crimes
against humanity. We are all bound by what U.S. Chief Prosecutor Robert K.
Jackson declared in 1948: [T]he very essence of the [Nuremberg] Charter is
that individuals have intentional duties which transcend the national
obligations of obedience imposed by the individual state."
	At the Tokyo War Crimes trial, it was further declared "[A]nyone
with knowledge of illegal activity and an opportunity to do something
about it is a potential criminal under international law unless the person
takes affirmative measures to prevent commission of the crimes."

	 So we call on you: refuse orders to be sent to this or any other
war. Stay at home with your friends and families, work with us to turn
your armouries into housing for the homeless, work with us to transform
the War Dept. into the Dept. of Human Needs, help us teach the world that
you can't keep the peace with a gun, help veterans of past wars receive
full compensation and proper treatment for their illnesses, join us to
demand that we fill the world with food and shelter, not with guns and
bombs, join us to reclaim our country as a place that serves need, not
greed, a place where environmental respect and human dignity are placed
before a system which profits from war and human misery.

	If you are in the armed forces and want to speak with us about any
of these issues or concerns that you may have about the impending war,
feel free to contact us at PO Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West, Toronto,
On M6C 1C0, or e-mail us at tasc at web.ca

Peace
Homes not Bombs