Action Alert: Iraq
February 2003
From: UNITED METHODIST WOMEN’S ACTION NETWORK
Women’s Division – General Board of Global Ministries
100 Maryland Avenue, NE Suite 530 – Washington, DC 20002
Tel. (202) 488-5660 * Fax (202) 488-5681

On February 3, 2003 Senator Edward Kennedy introduced SR 32 to require a vote from Congress before war can be declared.  The Resolution states in part:

 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that before the President uses military force against Iraq without the broad support of the international community, the President should –

(1)                 provide full support for the United Nations weapons inspectors to facilitate their ongoing disarmament work and

(2)                 obtain approval by Congress of new legislation authorizing the President to use all necessary means, including the use of military force, to disarm Iraq. 

As part of the faith community, the National Council of Churches is seeking help in support of this Resolution.

 Women’s Division directors adopted the following statement on Iraq at their October, 2002 meeting:

 We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ.  We therefore reject war as a usual instrument of national foreign policy and insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them; that human values must outweigh military claims as governments determine their priorities; that the militarization of society must be challenged and stopped; that the manufacture, sale, and deployment of armaments must be reduced and controlled; and that the production, possession, or use of nuclear weapons be condemned.  Consequently, we endorse general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. 

Social Principles of The United Methodist Church, Paragraph 165C
The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2000 

The General Conference of The United Methodist Church, meeting in May 2000, approved a resolution entitled “Sanctions Against Iraq Should be Lifted,” which emphasizes that “the magnitude of the effects of the sanctions has created a humanitarian crisis and the continuation of the sanctions is the moral equivalent to waging war against a civilian population.”  The resolution urged the government of the United States “…to support the lifting of economic sanctions on Iraq by the Security Council of the United Nations…” and, at the same time, to work for the furtherance of “…making the entire Middle East a zone free of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.”

In October 2001, the Women’s Division voted to “urge the President to press for peace in the Middle East, including security for the state of Israel and justice and sovereignty for the Palestinian people.” 

The Women’s Division re-affirms its opposition to war as the instrument for resolving the continuing conflict with Iraq; presses for lifting the sanctions against Iraq; and urges all governments, most particularly the United States and the Security Council of the United Nations, to pursue peaceful means in resolving conflicts with Iraq.