...Ever since the President declared war on terrorism, there has been mounting pressure in Washington to make Iraq the next target, a move that would likely undo the improvements of the past few years and plunge Iraq into an even deeper crisis. In an effort to add the weight of Congress to that pressure, last week Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced H.J. Res. 75 – a resolution declaring that any “refusal by Iraq to admit UN weapons inspectors…should be considered an act of aggression against the U.S. and its allies.” With the backing of 9 Republican colleagues, including Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, the resolution was expected to pass the House International Relations Committee intact.
Fortunately, the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) was tipped off to the resolution and quickly alerted the grassroots. Within days, from every part of the United States, Congress received a flood of letters, e-mails and phone calls. The opposition generated by EPIC forced congressional hawks to remove the troublesome “act of aggression” language from the resolution — a major setback for those pushing for all-out war against Iraq.
Despite this success, the threat of a massive U.S. military assault on Iraq has not gone away. In his January 29 Presidential address, Bush referred to Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an “axis of evil”, declaring that the U.S. would “not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons.” ...
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