Report on our visit with an aide from

Dennis Hastert's office

8/13/02

Eight peace activists met with an aide from Dennis Hastert's office on Tuesday, August 13th to ask the Speaker to oppose the impending war against Iraq. We held a planning session a few days beforehand in which we developed an outline of the points we intended to make. We each took responsibility for preparing arguments related to that point. The aide we met with was Brandon Grometer.

  1. We adopted a courteous tone, thanked Brandon for the meeting, and assured him that we were practicing good citizenship by raising an alarm about an issue of such essential moral and practical urgency as the proposed war against Iraq.
  2. We began by making it clear that we represented more people than just ourselves. In fact we represented peace groups from Kane, De Kalb, and DuPage Counties, all in Hastert's district and that we also networked with groups from Woodstock, Rockford,Oak Park and Chicago.

    We had asked numerous friends and supporters to call Hastert's office on that day and to say that they were aware of our visit and agreed with our arguments. As far as we know several people did this.

  3. We pointed out that all the rationales which the Bush administration had put forward for this war were so flimsy and insubstantial that they did not hold up to examination. These include the weapons of mass destruction argument, the link to Islamic terrorism argument, the Saddam is an evil, undemocratic dictator argument, and the self-defense argument. We put these weak arguments in contrast with the enormous human cost of the war in Iraqi lives and American lives. We said we were left wondering what was the real reason for the war and had considered that it had something to do with Iraqi oil, or perhaps some kind of family grudge match between Bush and Hussein.
  4. We addressed the amount of money the US spends for military defense, now one Billion dollars per day, even without an additional war on Iraq, and how much better it would be to spend some of that on schools, health care, domestic infrastructure, and other social needs. We also cited warnings by economists that the US economy could be hit hard by the war itself and by oil shocks that arise from the political fallout.
  5. We addressed US unilateralism. That our allies do not support this war; that it will cause further alienation in the Arab world; that it will prove a great recruiting tool for Al Quida and other terrorist groups; and that it will further destabilize the Middle East.
  6. We addressed the enormous suffering of the Iraqi people under the sanctions and the outrageous injustice that represents. We pointed out that if war comes, it will be the Iraqi people who do most of the suffering and dying.
  7. One of our team, a local pastor, talked about moral and religious objections to the war, and how several churches would oppose it.
  8. In response to Brandon's asking us what our solutions would be, we addressed the need for the United States to drastically alter its foreign policy, to obey and uphold international law, rather than defy it, and to sign on to the ICC and other international treaties.

Mr. Grometer listened quietly and respectfully, took notes, and asked a few questions. He appeared to take us seriously and to be in tune with our values. We are skeptical, of course, that any of this will have any impact on Speaker Hastert's position.

One important point: Brandon said that President Bush had not yet consulted with Speaker Hastert about war on Iraq. Revealing! And Disturbing! Just how small is the inner circle planning this war?

Our big mistake was that we forgot to ask for an opportunity to meet with the Speaker himself. We have done that in a follow-up letter.

We were pleased to read a recent email that told of an Oak Park peace group having a meeting on the same topic with a representative of their congressman, Bill Lipinsky. Our positive fantasy is that all across the nation, Congresspeople are getting the same message from local peace groups.

If you have not yet made your call, please call Congressman Hastert's office soon to tell him you oppose the proposed war against Iraq. 630-406-1114. Or fax him at 630-406-1808.