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We Americans who really do love our country must band together and demand a positive and constructive future for our nation as well as for the world. As such, the following principles are proposed:

War itself is both terrorism and a crime against humanity, and must be recognized as such and condemned by the world community. "War" and "defense" are not the same thing.

The killing of innocent people anywhere in the world, by anyone, including Americans, is unacceptable.

The constitutional rights of our democratic society must not be compromised, including the right to free speech and freedom of the press, especially in times of "war."

The rule of law, rather than war, should be used for the prosecution of crimes. International bodies of justice must be strengthened and respected.

Militarism is not an acceptable foreign policy. We must demand that militarism be condemned and alternatives to militarism be implemented, including:

1) The US military should be used for the defense of our country, or for international peacekeeping, period. It should not be used for terrorism (see definition above), nor to force the personal ideologies of ruling US politicians upon the rest of the world; it should not be used to pave the way for American corporate expansion across the planet; and it should not be used to gain access to natural resources in other countries.

2) War should be denounced as a crime against humanity and anyone who plans for, or wages war should be brought to justice by the world community. To be responsible for starting a needless war is unquestionably the greatest failure of any politician at any time in history, past or present. [see human rights violations]

3) All weapons of mass destruction in any country in the world should be destroyed. Their very existence is an abomination, an insult, and a threat to every decent person on Earth.

4) The United States should pledge to respect international law and thereby become an example to the rest of the world. This is incredibly overdue, as many US presidential administrations have not respected international law and have flagrantly and repeatedly violated the rights of sovereign nations over the past 50 years. The United Nations Security Council has established procedures for dealing with international conflicts. the US should respect and abide by these procedures.

To sign a petition urging the U.S. Government to abide by international law, please go to: http://www.lawyersagainstthewar.org

5) Our “country” should be recognized by our citizens as the land we live on and all of its inhabitants. Our "country" includes our rivers, lakes and streams, mountains, forests, estuaries, flocks of birds, herds of deer, the air we breathe, and the soil we depend on for our food, as well as all of us people who live on this land. This is what we love, what we protect, and what we preserve. Our “country” is neither a flag nor the small group of wealthy, corporate-sponsored politicians who currently control the government. We owe no allegiance to the politicians; they are hired by us and paid by us to serve our country and we must stand up and demand this from them. Otherwise they will continue to bleed our economy, our natural resources, our young men and women, and our planet, to satisfy their egotistical addiction to militarism and greed.

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