"February 27, 2003
Dear President Bush:
As women from Iraq who fled our homeland to escape persecution by Saddam Hussein’s regime, we write to offer our support for your principled leadership. We applaud your determination to disarm Saddam and your commitment to help liberate the people of Iraq. We are daughters, mothers, wives, and sisters whose families and communities have suffered for too long. We stand with you because only the United States and its allies can help the people of Iraq break free from Saddam’s 34 years of brutal rule.
Those who have taken to the streets with signs reading, “No War on Iraq” are misled. It is Saddam who has been waging war on the people of Iraq. Every day that this war continues, more of our brothers and sisters will suffer from Saddam’s totalitarian and racist policies.
A quarter million Iraqis have been murdered in summary executions and mass killings - thousands of them gassed with chemical weapons. Millions have been forcibly displaced in ethnic cleansing campaigns, their homes destroyed, their property seized, their relatives deported and never seen again. Public beheadings, arbitrary arrests, torture and rape are routinely used to intimidate the population. This systematic campaign of terror will never stop until Saddam and the Ba'ath party are removed from power!!
We regret that the use of force to remove Saddam’s evil regime will entail the suffering of innocent people. But we also know that many lives have been lost in the past and many more will be lost in the future if Saddam is not stopped. The cost of inaction and appeasement would be very high for the people of America and Iraq alike. We know from personal experience that Saddam cannot be “contained” and will always be a danger to the world.
The Iraqi people will help to liberate their country, just as they heeded America’s call to rise up against Saddam after the Gulf War in 1991. But without American assistance, that uprising was crushed. Some of us participated in that uprising, risking our lives and losing relatives. When the United States comes to our assistance this time, the Iraqi people will not only be grateful, we will join in. But we cannot overthrow Saddam on our own.
We look forward to the day when, with the help of Americans and others of good will, Iraq can take its place as a Free World nation – a nation that is founded on the rule of law and equal rights for all citizens, where women participate fully in society, their rights respected and protected. As you plan for a post-Saddam Iraq, we ask you to maintain your commitment to establishing the building blocks of democracy, and to ensure that no neighboring powers interfere militarily with our desire to live in a free, pluralistic and democratic Iraq. Anything less would be an opportunity foregone to dramatically change the fate of millions of Iraqis, and sow the seeds for even greater changes across the Middle East.
"Again, we wish to extend our heartfelt support to you for your leadership, and our gratitude to all Americans who will be asked to risk both lives and treasure to remove Saddam. Know that the Iraqi people will eagerly contribute everything they have to the task. Our prayers are with you, with the American people, and with the Iraqi people."
Women for a Free Iraq"
Amazing Times We Live In...MUD