Vote with the Facts!
Voter Guide
We feel that there is no more urgent matter than to share these researched facts nationwide in order
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© 2004, Vote with the Facts & US Face to Face
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US Foreign & Defense Policies
1) Is preemptive war legal?
Preemptive war violates Article 51 of the United Nations Charter (a treaty
ratified by almost every nation in the world, including the
The prohibition against aggressive war, like that against slavery and torture, is a fundamental international law. In clear violation of this fundamental law, the Bush Administration’s radically new "preemptive strike" doctrine proclaims that the United States may use military force against any state it perceives to be hostile; any state which seeks to acquire biological, chemical or nuclear weapons; or any one that "aids" terrorism.
Source: "Bush’s Illegal War," Elizabeth Haddix, http://www.nlg.org/news/articles/haddix_oped.htm
Preemptive force "is extremely dangerous and flat-out illegal," says Jordan
Paust, professor of international law at the
Source: "As Attack on
2) How many international security-related treaties has the Bush administration violated, refused to participate in, or withdrawn from?
At least nine. They include, but are not limited to, the following.
Violations:
• United Nations Charter — preemptive war;
unauthorized invasion of
According to an August 2002 report by a UN subcommission, laws which are contravened by the use of depleted uranium shells include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing "poison or poisoned weapons" and "arms, projectiles or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering." All these laws are designed to spare civilians from unwarranted suffering in armed conflicts.
• The
• Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — refusal to engage in verified and irreversible reduction and elimination of nuclear forces; planning for maintenance and modernization of a large nuclear arsenal for the indefinite future (in violation of the obligation to negotiate nuclear disarmament in good faith).
Refused participation:
• Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty — does not support ratification.
• Verification Protocol on Biological Weapons — refused to support completion of negotiations on an agreement to verify compliance with the existing ban on biological weapons contained in the Biological Weapons Convention.
• Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court — in unprecedented action, notified the UN that the
• Treaty Banning Antipersonnel Mines — has
taken no action to move towards US participation in the ban on landmines as
projected by the
Withdrawn:
• Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty — withdrawal effective June 2002.
Sources: "
"US Forces’ Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons is
‘Illegal’," Neil Mackay, Sunday Herald,
Nicole Deller and John Burroughs, "Jus ad Bellum: Law Regulating Resort to Force," Human Rights, winter 2002, http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/winter03/lawregulatingresorttoforce.html
Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties, Nicole Deller, Arjun Makhijani, John Burroughs, eds. (Apex Press, 2003).
"Arms Control Abandoned: The Case of Biological Weapons," Nicole Deller and John Burroughs, World Policy Journal, summer 2003, http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj03-2/deller.html
"A Call to Arms Control," Jim Wurst, Washington Times,
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy Briefing Paper, "Multilateral Treaties Are Fundamental Tools for Protecting Global Security; United States Faces Choice of Bolstering These Regimes or Allowing Their Erosion," http://www.lcnp.org/pubs/RuleofLawbriefing.htm
3) How much is the
$401.3 billion.
Source: "Bush Signs Defense Authorization Bill," Fred Barbash, Washington Post staff writer,
"For 45 years of the Cold War we were in an arms race with the
Source: "Last of the Big Time Spenders: U.S. Military Budget
Still the World’s Largest, and Growing," Center for Defense Information,
4) Open: How do you feel about the fact that we are spending more than all of the next 20 top-spending nations combined and 52% of the yearly discretionary budget goes to military expenses?
Source: See Federal Budget Pie Chart, http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm
5) Do you know how many nuclear weapons the
8,000 nuclear warheads.
Source: "Nuclear Posture Review Submitted to Congress on
6) Do you know how many tons of chemical weapons the
In 1997, at the signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the
Sources: "U.S. Lags in Destroying Chemical Weapons: Likely won’t
meet deadline to be rid of chemical stores," Kathleen Kenna, The Toronto Star,
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0904-04.htm
7) What is the administration’s response to the international treaty called the "Chemical Weapons Convention," which is aimed at reducing and eliminating these chemical weapons?
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which enforces the
Chemical Weapons Convention, has sought to examine facilities in the
Source: "Chemical Coup D’Etat: The US
Wants to Depose the Diplomat Who Could Take Away Its Pretext for War With Iraq," George Monbiot,
Also available on http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0416-07.htm
8) How much military assistance is the Bush Administration asking
Congress to give
$2.2 billion — $60 million more than in 2004.
Source: New York Times,
9) Open: Arms sales worth $2.86 billion are being pushed to Eqypt and the
Source: "
Please share this information face to face with as many others as possible based on as much commitment you can muster in yourself for your country, your fellow Americans and for the world. For more referenced questions and answers please visit our website at: www.usfacetoface.org