What are we asking
for ?
Well, obviously, we would like the war to end and the troops
to leave Iraq. But we have to acknowledge that this may not be a practical
demand at present. Nevertheless, we can still draw attention to the
fact that the problems faced by the US Government, the mess it is finding
itself in, (worsening conflict, ever-growing numbers of civilian and
military casualties, how to ‘disengage’) are entirely of
their own making.
Having said that, there is another path we can take.
We can ask that the US Government open the dialogue
with its enemies.
There can be no peace without dialogue.
At present we only hear US and Australian Government figures
talking about “terrorists”. If “terrorists”
are the enemy, it is time we heard that our leaders are making moves
to talk to them and with them. As a start, they
can do this through the press at any time - tomorrow if they have the
will.
For example, we have heard that “terrorists” despise
and hate Western Democracies. What we have not heard is our leaders asking
them why this is so.
An opening to the proposed dialogue might be “Can we
please discuss how we might find a way to be able to live side by side without
fighting one another ?”
So the request of the Twenty-O-Three Initiative is:-
“ Open the Dialogue !”
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