By Marcus R. Bond

The Southeast Missouri Coalition for Peace and Justice came together in October 2002 to oppose the war against Iraq that the Bush administration was fomenting. We knew the stated reasons for war were unsound. There are no links between Iraq and al-Qaida or the 9-11 attacks, as was recently confirmed by the long-delayed report from a joint congressional investigation and as finally acknowledged by President Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Rice, and Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz.

We knew that Iraq, after 12 years of crippling economic sanctions and rigorous weapons inspections, did not pose any conventional or non-conventional military threat to the United States. The speed with which the Iraqi forces collapsed in battle and the inability to find any weapons of mass destruction, both by U.N. weapons inspectors before the invasion and U.S. forces after, has borne this out.

While Saddam Hussein was indisputably an evil, repressive dictator, we felt that there were far better ways of removing him and promoting democracy and human rights in Iraq than by unilateral force of arms. Invading Iraq, we felt, was much more likely to bring widespread, unnecessary death and chaos and a deepening quagmire from which it would be difficult to extract ourselves, much like the nightmare that is currently unfolding.

Our efforts in the past year have been directed at informing the public about the prevarication behind the war and publicly opposing the war in the hope that our voices, along with the voices of millions of others around the world, could stop this calamity.

But now we are knee deep in a morass of daily attacks on U.S. troops, growing internal tribal and religious violence, failure to re-establish fundamental public works throughout Iraq and widespread unemployment, poverty and lawlessness among the Iraqi people that far exceeds what they experienced prior to the invasion.

Neither do we see any clear plan for solving these problems. However, some actions should clearly be taken at this point. The United States must immediately abandon all claims to Iraq and transfer authority for administering Iraq to the United Nations. The United Nations can then start the process of rapidly restoring civil order to the country and aiding the Iraqi people in establishing a truly representative government.

This transfer of authority would also require the cancellation of all current contracts for rebuilding Iraq and the re-negotiation of new contracts that are developed to benefit the Iraqi people and not wealthy proponents of this war in the United States.

Within our own country we must demand immediate open congressional hearings into the misleading rhetoric and poor planning that led to this disastrous situation. Individuals responsible for advocating the false basis for the war or exercising unsound diplomatic or military judgment must be removed from office and punished if appropriate.

As we enter the fourth year of what is perhaps its most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, our own country is in serious need of rebuilding. In a short period of time we have been reduced from federal budget surpluses to the largest deficits in history. We seek leaders who can restore fiscal responsibility to the nation.

As the recent blackout in the northeastern United States shows, our crumbling infrastructure is in desperate need of repair. The $1 billion a week spent on Iraq should be spent instead on a public works program to strengthen our infrastructure and generate new jobs to replace at least some of the millions of jobs that have been lost in the past three years as a result of the policies of the Bush administration.

Beyond these immediate issues, preservation of our environment is a key to maintaining the long-term physical and economic health of our nation. Of particular concern, in relation to the Iraq crisis, is our nation's dependence on non-renewable sources of energy. The long-term security of our nation is better served if some of the untold billions of dollars and cunning ingenuity used to develop armaments to protect our strategic petroleum interests overseas were instead used to develop renewable sources of energy and to promote energy conservation measures and energy efficiency.

We call for the design and funding of a national effort to turn our country into a world leader in alternative energy technology and thereby eliminate our dependence on imported energy before this decade is out.

Marcus R. Bond of Cape Girardeau is active in the Southeast Missouri Coalition for Peace and Justice.