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War Fact Sheet
by BulletinBoardforPeace.org
April 18, 2003

1. The 9-11 tragedy was used to go to war with a country that had nothing to do with the bombing! Osama Bin Ladin and his followers (the Al Quaeda) from Afghanistan were the group who caused the bombings — not Iraq. The media preyed upon Americans' lack of knowledge of Mideast geography and stacked news reports together so that every time 9-11 was mentioned, Iraq was associated with it.

2. War on Arab nations was planned prior to Bush's election. In 1997, a group of 18 men wrote a paper called PNAC (Project for the New American Century) announcing their plan to go to war on the whole Middle East. 10 are now leaders in the Bush administration, among them: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Armitage, Bolton, Khalilzad, and Perle.

3. The American people went to war to free a country. American leaders went to war for greed. Saddam was a terrible dictator, but the U.S. helped him build weapons ... until he refused our plans to build a pipeline in his country and switched from the U.S. dollar to Euros. Politicians manipulated the nobility of the American spirit.

4. The administration intends to go to war with many other countries, one by one. Rumsfeld said only days after the fall of Baghdad that terrorism is a "network" (meaning the U.S. doesn't have to respect any nation's borders) and will call any country "terrorist" that it wants to bully: Syria, Iran, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen. The strategy is to make each country in turn look dangerous, until the U.S. dominates the Mideast.

5. War on the Middle East will increase terrorism, not fight it. What you don't see on the news is that the rest of the world now views us as the evil empire. Former allies no longer support us. American embassies are attacked. Our aggression results in a vicious circle: we intimidate nations, then have to bankrupt our economy to protect our borders . . . against people we think we may have scared into retaliation.

6. What you see on the news is strictly controlled by the administration. Before reporters were "embedded," they had to convince the government they would report only the military's point of view. Journalists know they will be fired if they criticize the United States. All U.S. television is owned by only 6 media mega-corporations, who favor the war. You were not allowed to see or hear the details of civilian casualties because you might feel empathy for the Iraqi people.

7. The budget allots billions to military spending while cutting back on social programs. Haliburton, Bechtel . . . companies who paid for Bush's election will make fortunes rebuilding Iraq; of Bush's 30 defense contractors, 9 have ties to companies that have already won $76 billion in defense contracts. They get rich while 1 in 3 Americans is uninsured, 1 of 4 homeless has a job, and it takes 2 1/2 full-time jobs at minimum wage in some cities to rent a 1-bedroom apartment.

8. The budget finances the military while putting the entire American economy in jeopardy. This means that you will not be out of national debt in your lifetime. The government will need to print "funny money" (mere paper that is not backed by gold reserves) — and then the government will need to go back to war to keep things moving. Your social security is not safe if the government needs to borrow from it.

9. Recent tax cuts will make the poor of this nation much, much poorer. The current estimated tax bill to each person in this country to pay for the war is an average of $2,000. If you earn less than $50,000 you should worry. The bottom 40% (almost half!) of wage earners has already lost 80% of their wealth during the last round of tax cuts.

10. While Americans fight for freedom abroad, PATRIOT legislation attacks their freedom at home. Legislation is being pushed (such as Oregon Bill 742) that could imprison you for life if you exercise freedom of speech. PATRIOT bills (which were meant to be temporary) may become a permanent part of your life. In a nutshell, this allows the government to arrest or spy on you without probable cause.

11. A dangerous precedent has been set allowing the president to go to war without approval. This undermines the U.S. Constitution's system of checks and balances and disables the UN as a peacemaker.

12. Bush supports troops only before they serve, abandoning Veterans when they come home. Bush cut $25 billion dollars in Veteran Benefits the day he sent troops to Iraq. National Guard families lived at poverty level. Gulf War illness (caused in part by the depleted uranium in our own weapons) has been diagnosed as "stress syndrome" so the government doesn't have to pay for healthcare or disabilities of children born with birth defects connected to parents' exposure.

The majority of Americans who get their news from mainstream newspapers and television are for the war. The majority of people who access news from the Internet are against the war. For a list of news sources, go to

http://www.BulletinBoardforPeace.org