Fwd: Fw: Petition for a peaceful and legal response by America

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Dear All,

 

Below is a link to a petition established by a lecturer at the University

of Chicago urging the US President & other world leaders to avoid war

following from last week's tragic events. This is a web-based petition not

an email one so does not present the well-documented problems of email

petitions.

 

Please consider going to the link below and signing it.

 

To sign the petition go to: http://home.uchicago.edu/~dhpicker/petition

 

The Petition What follows is a petition that will be forwarded to President

Bush, and other world leaders, urging them to avoid war as a response to

the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon this

week. Please read it, sign below, and forward the link to as many people

as possible, as quickly as possible. We must circulate this quickly if it

is to have any effect at all, as the Congress of The United States has

already passed a resolution supporting any military action President Bush

deems appropriate.

 

- -

 

We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of the United States of America

and of countries around the world, appeal to the President of The United

States, George W. Bush; to the NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson; to

the President of the European Union, Romano Prodi; and to all leaders

internationally to use moderation and restraint in responding to the recent

terrorist attacks against the United States. We implore the powers that be

to use, wherever possible, international judicial institutions and

international human rights law to bring to justice those responsible for

the attacks, rather than the instruments of war, violence or destruction.

 

Furthermore, we assert that the government of a nation must be presumed

separate and distinct from any terrorist group that may operate within its

borders, and therefore cannot be held unduly accountable for the latter's

crimes. It follows that the government of a particular nation should not

be condemned for the recent attack without compelling evidence of its

cooperation and complicity with those individuals who actually committed

the crimes in question.

 

Innocent civilians living within any nation that may be found responsible,

in part or in full, for the crimes recently perpetrated against the United

States, must not bear any responsibility for the actions of their

government, and must therefore be guaranteed safety and immunity from any

military or judicial action taken against the state in which they reside.

 

Lastly and most emphatically, we demand that there be no recourse to

nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or any weapons of indiscriminate

destruction, and feel that it is our inalienable human right to live in a

world free of such arms.