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September 11: Joe Volk Responds to the President
9/12/2006
September 12, 2006
George W. Bush
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear George W. Bush:
Last night, I listened to your address to the nation on the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Your empathy and concern for the survivors of those attacks and for the loved ones of those who did not survive surely were comforting. Your anger at those who planned the attacks may have helped to vent still pent-up feelings about the cold and brutal violence that killed so many innocent people. Your description of those killed – coming from many nations, many faiths, and many walks of life – reminded all of us that we are a global community. We are one people under one and the same God. For those remarks, I thank you.
Yet as I listened to you last night, I also felt that my president does not represent me or my community of faith. I was disappointed that you appeared to use the terror and suffering of September 11 for partisan political advantage in this congressional election season. The remembrances of September 11 should be non-partisan and should bring us together. The president should not only be the commander in chief of the armed forces, he should also be a leader who gives voice to all of us in such a time. To my ears, you gave voice only to those who support your political agenda. You divided us.
I tried to imagine how others who listened to your address would hear you and what they would think.
For most of the public, I think you reinforced a fear of a faceless, endless, evil threat that may strike anywhere and any time. Yet, when you quoted FDR, you didn’t use his most important words: we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
I am particularly concerned by your argument that the U.S. should continue to pursue the same failed policies in Iraq that have created the current situation in that country. Your own U.S. military officers recently prepared a report on the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office issued a report concluding that sectarian divisions are increasing and violent attacks are at an “all time high.” Reports coming from Iraq consistently indicate that U.S. policies there have failed. We might not agree on what U.S. policy should be, but surely we can agree that the U.S. should not simply continue its failed policies.
President Bush, war is not the answer to the problem of terror. Terror is not a person, not a place, and not a thing. It is a tactic. You cannot defeat tactics with weapons and armor. Terror can be deterred and stopped through active diplomacy, through multilateral cooperation, and through the rule of law. You have two years in which to turn 180 degrees from being only a “war president” to being a statesman and world leader. I’ve enclosed a short memo outlining what we at FCNL believe would be the first steps toward a more productive and successful policy to turn the tide against extremism in the Middle East and answer the aspirations of the majority of the people in that region.
I urge you to join with the vast majority in the world who want a world ruled by law and not by the barrel of a gun. We need our president to be the leader for replacing division and war with unity and peace. Civilization is protected by and built on law, not on war. Peace is possible, if you choose peaceful means to achieve it.
Sincerely,
Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
MEMO
To: President George W. Bush
From: Joe Volk, Executive Secretary
Date: September 12, 2006
In these next two years, your administration can turn the tide against extremism in the Middle East and answer the aspirations of vast majorities of people there by taking three strategic initiatives:
1. Resurrect the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process. The gateway to freedom, peace, and democracy in the region is not through Baghdad but rather through Jerusalem. The key to opening that gateway is the two-state solution. The one viable option for a compassionate peace in the Middle East with a future for all peoples of the region is the two-state solution. The two-state solution is dead, killed by U.S., Israeli, and Palestinian negligence. The United States can resurrect it by focusing on intensive non-military, diplomatic, political, and economic initiatives to secure a sustainable two-state solution.
2. No Permanent Bases Agreement in Iraq. The House and Senate have passed declarations that it is U.S. policy not to have permanent U.S. military bases and forces in Iraq and that it is the U.S. goal to leave Iraq. Your administration has persuaded the congressional leadership to remove those provisions in conference committees, and Congress has complied. As a result, the people of Iraq and the Middle East have drawn the reasonable assumption that U.S. intentions are to stay and to occupy Iraq permanently, and they believe the U.S. objective is control of oil and gas reserves. I urge you to encourage Congress to retain the No Permanent Bases provision in the military appropriations bill. Doing so will send a strong message to the people of Iraq and the Middle East that U.S. intentions are not imperial. That message will help to strengthen the new government of Iraq.
3. Weaken the Extremists by Ending the War on Terror. When you declared a “war on terror,” you handed Osama bin Laden and others like him the victory they sought. You did exactly what they wanted and needed to build their movement. Take their victory away now. You have made the extremists, people like Osama bin Laden, 10 feet tall and made them your equal on the world stage. Because you have given them the war with the “one remaining superpower” that they wanted, you have given them the strategic advantage. In the eyes of the public they are seeking to reach, they are David fighting Goliath. This is a strategic blunder of historic proportion. Your “war on terror” frames the struggle so that any time a terror attack kills civilians, the U.S. suffers a defeat and the extremists take another victory. You can strategically weaken the extremists by ending the “war on terror,” by demoting the extremists to the level of criminals, and by calling on all nations to join the U.S. in a law enforcement project of bring these criminals to account under the rule of law.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation is a nonpartisan Quaker lobby in the public interest that represents 26 yearly meetings of the Religious Society of Friends (called Quakers). FCNL speaks for itself and like-minded individuals. Working with a network of constituents in every congressional district in the United States, FCNL seeks to bring the concerns, experiences and testimonies of Friends to bear on national policy decisions. For more information: www.fcnl.org
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