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Common Agenda of the Bay Area Statement

This was written by one who lived through the horrors of World War II and saw the U.S. and other nations decide never again to get into a world war, and to found the United Nations to resolve conflicts that could lead to war. When people stop and think about it, people prefer the rule of law to killing.

After discussion, this statement was adopted by Common Agenda, Bay Area, Sept. 15, 2001

URGENT STEPS WE MUST TAKE NOW:

1. We must constantly state that the steps the U.S. takes now can lead to World War III, which would engulf the entire world because Afghanistan sits next to Pakistan and Iran and Iraq and India as well as the Middle East and U.S. troops are everywhere in the world.

2. We must remind the people of this country that the U.S. has committed acts of terrorism in other countries and on the high seas. The U.S. has helped fund and train the kinds of people from many nations who committed the suicidal attacks on Sept. 11th. And we must describe actions the U.S. Government, especially the military and CIA, have taken that fueled the suicidal attacks.

3. We must insist that the U.S. take the steps agreed to in the U.N. Charter. The legal and peaceful step to take to find and judge Bin Laden is for the U.S. immediately to sue Afghanistan in the World Court or other appropriate international forum over its alleged harboring of Bin Laden, who allegedly is the organizer of the attacks, and seek injunctive action by the Court ordering Afghanistan to give him up for trial immediately while the case is pending.

This is exactly what the U.S. did when it sued Iran in the World Court in the hostage crisis, and what the Court ordered the U.S. to stop laying bombs in Nicaragua, which the U.S. obeyed.

4. The U.S. Government did immediately follow Art. 51 of the U.N. Charter and report to the Security Council that it had been attacked. On Sept. 12, 2001, the Security Council met and discussed what is to be done at the international level. It adopted Resolution 1368 calling on "all States to work together urgently to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors" of the attack and that they "will be held accountable." The Security Council called "on the international community to redouble their efforts" against terrorism, and expressed "its readiness to take all necessary steps to respond to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, ... in accordance with its responsibilities under the Charter...."

This means that the U.S. must NOT take its own military steps in violation of U.N. Charter Articles 2.3 and 2.4. The U.S. must decide, with all other 14 members of the Security Council, what steps should be taken, with the goal of Peace, not revenge and further war.

Art. 51 Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense, if an armed attack occurs against a member of the organization, until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the ... Charter to take at any time such action as it may deem necessary ... to maintain or restore international peace and security.

2.3 All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace, and security, and justice, are not endangered.

2.4 All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any member or state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.

5. As a symbol that the U.S. has learned something from the bombing of its civilian city, the U.S. should immediately announce that it will stop bombing Iraq.

6. We must applaud the courage, morality, and legality, of the position of Cong. Barbara Lee in voting against an absolutely illegal and unprecedented act of Congress seeking to give free rein to the U.S. military, CIA, and the rest of the intelligence system under the War Powers Act. The U.S. military must specifically be forbidden to take acts of war against any nation or individual. No nation has attacked the U.S. We insist that no money for the ongoing military build-up just voted by Congress come from the Social Security Fund, health care, Medicare, or education.

And we must repeat that ANY warlike actions by the U.S. against impoverished people of another nation and region will only lead to more killings now, and to breeding the next generation who will be willing to kill themselves to seek revenge.

PEACE IS POSSIBLE. JUSTICE IS POSSIBLE. WE MUST REDOUBLE OUR EFFORTS.

Additional new proposal: to provide information on conscientious objection to members of the Armed Forces who discover that they have strong religious or parallel belief objections to participating in war.

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