Dear Friends!


...first of all let me thank all of you for the overwhelming support you gave to this wild idea Money for Peace; within only 2 weeks our mailing list grew to over 5.000 addresses!

Now that the criminal and unjust US-led attack against Iraq has started, it is important to show that this is not marking the end of our struggle for peace, but only its beginning.

Not only do we have to stand up against this unjust and criminal war, we also have to fight against the US, British and Spanish governments ignoring the UN, the international law and the will of many citizens of this world - all of this in the name of bringing democracy to the Iraq!

For this, we will have to use all means of peaceful resistance - we have to inform and organise ourselves, but we also have to creatively develop new means of global resistance.

Please send your ideas and opinions to contact@moneyforpeace.org

Please also take the time to read the following and forward it to your friends and colleagues. Despite the ongoing war: it still is important to pull our forces together, please ask your friends to join our initiative by sending their e-mail address to contribute@moneyforpeace.org - we don't know what the next steps of the Bush Regime are and we need to be able to act and react.

If you no longer wish to receive e-mails from us, please send a mail to nomore@moneyforpeace.org

You can find press clippings and a radio interview about our initiative here:
http://www.taz.de/pt/2003/03/10/a0083.nf/text
http://www.taz.de/pt/2003/03/10/a0158.nf/text
http://www.moneyforpeace.org/coverage/Interview_945.mp3

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Yes!, our idea Money for Peace might have been naive from the very beginning, but only the developments of the latest days have shown, how naive we really were and what kind of thinking is driving the Bush Regime: we did not expect the US government to totally ignore the United Nations, even daring to give the UN a 24-hour ultimatum "to do its job. If not, all of us need to step back and try to figure out how to make the U.N. work better " as Bush put it on the Azores' press conference.

What is behind all of this? Why is the Bush Regime happily turning the anger of the people of the world against itself by openly breaching international law, ignoring the UN Security Council and launching an illegal attack? The official US reasoning kept changing; one day it was the fight against terrorism, then it was disarmament, then it was regime change (guess who supported Saddams raise to power), then it was the so-called links between Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Laden, then it was to make sure UN resolutions are being respected.

None of these reasons are believable:

• it is actually the Bush Regime happily ignoring the UN, refusing to acknowledge the ICC (International Criminal Court) and holding the world's biggest arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction
• no evidence of links between Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Laden could be produced
• the disarmament and weapon inspections were progressing
• a 'regime change' could be established peacefully with UN secured elections - once the UN Security Council would vote to do so.

Even the 48-hour ultimatum the Bush Regime posed onto "Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave the country" in order to avoid war was a lie: it was made clear that US forces would invade Iraq anyway, whether Saddam would leave or not.

Would you believe the Bush Regime is buying its own lies? There must be other reasons behind the attack on Iraq.

It is noteworthy, that already on September 11, 2001 - hours after the attacks on the WTC- US Defense Secretary Rumsfeld composes notes that are leaked nearly a year later. In these, Rumsfeld writes he wants the "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time. Not only UBL. [Usama bin Laden] Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not." [CBS, 9/4/02] Time will report in May 2002 that Defense Secretary "Rumsfeld has been so determined to find a rationale for an attack that on 10 separate occasions he asked the CIA to find evidence linking Iraq to the terror attacks of Sept. 11. The intelligence agency repeatedly came back empty-handed." [Time, 5/6/02]

On September 17, 2001, President Bush signs a document marked "TOP SECRET" that outlines a plan for going to war in Afghanistan. The document also directs the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq. Two days after Bush signs the document, the Defense Policy Board - with Rumsfeld in attendance - meets at the Pentagon and animatedly discusses the importance of ousting Saddam Hussein. Iraq secretly becomes a "central focus" of the US's counter-terrorism efforts over the next nine months, without much in the way of internal debate, public pronouncements or paper trail [Washington Post, 1/12/02.]

Quite obviously, the attack on Iraq was planned a long time ago - most likely long before 9/11 (or would you believe that Rumsfeld's expressed intent of September 11 to attack Iraq was a spontaneous idea?).

I don't want to go too much into the unsafe waters of speculation about the real reasons behind this unbelievable crime, but it seems obvious that oil is one part of the equation, as is the strategic location of Iraq. It might not be the actual value of the Iraqi oil, but the strategic importance to control it. Here some information hardly mentioned in the mainstream media - make up your own mind:

On November 6, 2000, Saddam Hussein switched his oil sales from dollar to euro. 'Axis-of-evil' and OPEC member Iran is thinking about doing the same: during 2002 the majority of reserve funds in Irans central bank were shifted to euros. It appears imminent they intend to switch oil payments to euros. Strangely enough, the final 'Axis of Evil' country, North Korea, recently decided to officially drop the dollar and begin using euros for trade, effective Dec. 7, 2002. Coincidence? Maybe...

But why should it matter so much to the US, in which currency oil is being traded? Well, the US is running a huge state deficit, as a matter of fact the US is the most debt-ridden nation on earth, owing about US$ 105,000 for every single one of its 280 million men, women and children - presumably adding another US$ 1,200 for the coming year, with the cost of the ongoing war not even included! To put this into perspective: the US debt is more than 10 times the debt of all 187 development countries (including Russia and China) put together.

The USA can get away with this truly unbelievable debt, because literally the whole world is paying for it: as the dollar is the world currency not only for oil but also for all other internationally traded goods, (almost) all central banks of the world are holding their nations' bank reserves in dollars. In other words: the nations of the world have to buy dollars either through cash or goods, thus financing the USA.

Once the petro dollar would be replaced by the euro, other goods would be traded in euro as well and, as a result, the international bank reserves would have to be shifted into euro. Thus, enormous amounts of dollars would become available, leading to a dramatic devaluation of the dollar - putting an end to cheap imports into the US.

The above is a very condensed summary of the 24-page analysis by William Clark, which you can find online at http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html - I am not trying to say that the Dollar-Euro issue truly could be the "one-and-only" reason driving the Bush Regime to breach international law, but I believe this topic should be reviewed.

Ever wondered, why the Bush Regime is using a giant map of the world as a backdrop for its press conferences on the war? If you'd like to get a glimpse at where Bush might be heading towards, check out http://www.newamericancentury.org/ - here some clippings:

(...) The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle; and that too few political leaders today are making the case for global leadership. (...)

(...) We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership.

As the 20th century draws to a close, the United States stands as the world's preeminent power. Having led the West to victory in the Cold War, America faces an opportunity and a challenge: Does the United States have the vision to build upon the achievements of past decades? Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests?

We are in danger of squandering the opportunity and failing the challenge. We are living off the capital -- both the military investments and the foreign policy achievements -- built up by past administrations. Cuts in foreign affairs and defense spending, inattention to the tools of statecraft, and inconstant leadership are making it increasingly difficult to sustain American influence around the world. And the promise of short-term commercial benefits threatens to override strategic considerations. As a consequence, we are jeopardizing the nation's ability to meet present threats and to deal with potentially greater challenges that lie ahead. (...)

(...) we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles. (...) "

Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Eliot A. Cohen, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle , Donald Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, I. Lewis Libby, Norman Podhoretz, Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen, Donald Rumsfeld, Vin Weber, George Weigel, Paul Wolfowitz


All the best wishes and let's all hope and work for peace,


Georg Zoche



"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Hermann Goering (Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe) at the Nuernberg trials, 1946




Das letzte Kapitel

(Erich Kästner, 1930)


Am 12. Juli des Jahres 2003
lief folgender Funkspruch rund um die Erde:
daß ein Bombengeschwader der Luftpolizei
die gesamte Menschheit ausrotten werde.

Die Weltregierung, so wurde erklärt, stelle fest,
daß der Plan, endgültig Frieden zu stiften,
sich gar nicht anders verwirklichen läßt,
als alle Beteiligten zu vergiften.

Zu fliehen, wurde erklärt, habe keinen Zweck.
Nicht eine Seele dürfe am Leben bleiben.
Das neue Giftgas krieche in jedes Versteck.
Man habe nicht einmal nötig, sich selbst zu entleiben.

Am 13. Juli flogen von Boston eintausend
mit Gas und Bazillen beladene Flugzeuge fort
und vollbrachten, rund um den Globus sausend,
den von der Weltregierung befohlenen Mord.

Die Menschen krochen winselnd unter die Betten.
Sie stürzten in ihre Keller und in den Wald.
Das Gift hing gelb wie Wolken über den Städten.
Millionen Leichen lagen auf dem Asphalt.

Jeder dachte, er könne dem Tod entgehen.
Keiner entging dem Tod, und die Welt wurde leer.
Das Gift war überall. Es schlich wie auf Zehen.
Es lief die Wüsten entlang. Und es schwamm übers Meer.

Die Menschen lagen gebündelt wie faulende Garben.
Andre hingen wie Puppen zum Fenster heraus.
Die Tiere im Zoo schrien schrecklich, bevor sie starben.
Und langsam löschten die großen Hochöfen aus.

Dampfer schwankten im Meer, beladen mit Toten.
Und weder Weinen noch Lachen war mehr auf der Welt.
Die Flugzeuge irrten, mit tausend toten Piloten,
unter dem Himmel und sanken brennend ins Feld.

Jetzt hatte die Menschheit endlich erreicht, was sie wollte.
Zwar war die Methode nicht ausgesprochen human.
Die Erde war aber endlich still und zufrieden und rollte,
völlig beruhigt, ihre bekannte elliptische Bahn.




Sources:
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html
http://208.187.163.46/completetimeline/timelineentiree.htm
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030316-3.html
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm
http://www.publicintegrity.org/
http://www.newamericancentury.org/
LE MONDE diplomatique - Atlas der Globalisierung, ISBN 3-9806917-6-4