AMMAN, JORDAN
Hello everyone,
I'm waiting in Amman, Jordan for visas to go into Iraq on 3/11. Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness petitioned Tarik Aziz and he said we're approved but there is still some delay. We are now complete, our last member arrived today & we take our papers to the Embassy in the AM, pick up our final supplies and leave on Tues 5AM.
The feeling here is so supportive of our purpose and we are all reading international news which, I think, is more hopeful that war can be stopped (as opposed to drumming up fervor for war by media in the States--which is what you are reading) Many Jordanians are Palestinian and it is good to share concerns about possible repercussions on the whole Middle East.
We are 7 Americans, 3 Canadians. Interestingly our group includes Zehira Houfani who wrote "A Letter from a Muslim Woman to North American Women" expressing her concerns about our foreign policy in the Muslim world and explaining our role in both the French occupation of Algeria, her homeland, and the civil wars/massacres more recently. Kathy and Bill Christison are retired (24yrs) CIA analysts with expertise in Middle East and Palestinian affairs who evolved a pacifist and outspoken stance against the destructive role our government has adopted in world economics, diplomacy, and militarism. They are writers published frequently in Counterpunch (www.counterpunch.org)
What's amazing, perhaps not, is the way we have all arrived here from diverse backgrounds, all committed to stay with the Iraq people through whatever occurs. Of course, you know my reasons: The value of our lives in the aggressor nation is no more than those of the Iraqis. They have suffered severely from sanctions and bombing perpetrated by our wrangling at the UN. This is no more about democracy than our bribing Turkish leaders against the majority of their citizens. We breed terrorism through our self-absorbed consumerism and our free-reigning corporate greed.
This assault on a densely populated city is premptive aggression by an unsupported superpower, the first of many imperialistic moves by a powerful military-industrial machine without brakes. This planned crime against humanity is quite possibly the opening of the the Third World War, possibly the US agaist the European Union, possibly racist, religious, or both. Apparently, human lives and morality don't figure into any equation constructed by the campaign planners. Nuclear fallout, both world health and environmental effects, is anticipated and unimaginable.
Here in Jordan, American products are being boycotted, fast food outlets are avoided. Border crossing is becoming more difficult. NGO workers are leaving Iraq and diplomats are packing up. UN workers have been withdrawn leaving a skeleton force, likely to be called out at the last minute. Right now, after the exchange of people, the Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad will number around 50 and we may be the only witnesses with the journalists left behind. Many international media outlets have pulled all their reporters. A Japanese paper interviewed us today here in Amman but no longer has anyone in Baghdad. Newspapers, television stations, media groups are not interested in the human element of the current events, focusing instead on the political power brokering and posturing.
We are cohesive, energized, anxious to be present with the Iraq people in Baghdad. Wish that you could share this international commraderie with me. I'm grateful for the actions you've done (the Recruitment Office! Yeah!) Keep up the good work! How did the wailing and rivers, the lighted peace symbol feel? Ramsey Clark in N.J? I miss you all!
Love, April
