PEACE QUEST EVENT MARKS TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF U.S. INVASION IN IRAQ URGES SUPPORT FOR ITS NEW ‘STRENGTH THROUGH PEACE’ PLEDGE

At Cape Breton University on March 23, 2003, Peace Quest Cape Breton (PQCB) and the Cape Breton University Peace Quest Student Society held a somber event to mark and mourn the twentieth anniversary of the illegal war of choice against Iraq launched by the United States, United Kingdom, and a small number of states – not including Canada – willing to act as accomplices to that crime.

The event featured a presentation by PQCB Campaign Coordinator Sean Howard – From Iraq to Ukraine to…? War as a Price Not Worth Paying – which can be viewed in full HERE. Sean also outline PQCB’s new ‘Strength through Peace’ Pledge, release to coincide with the anniversary, which has already been endorsed by other peace groups including Pax Christi Toronto, World BEYOND War Montreal, and Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) Nova Scotia. The Pledge opens by insisting that only an abolitionist agenda is sufficient to save the world from the constant and growing curse of conventional war, and to prevent the ultimate disaster of nuclear war:

Twenty years after the illegal US invasion of Iraq – and one year in to the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine – war and militarism have emerged, alongside the climate crisis they help compound, as the curse of the 21st century, blighting efforts to build a truly new, humane world order. Because, in the atomic age, the world cannot reasonably be expected to endure decades more endemic conflict, condemning individual wars and war crimes is, while necessary, not sufficient: it is high time to renounce war itself as a crime against humanity and the planet.

Individuals and groups wishing to endorse the Pledge are requested to contact Peace Quest Cape Breton at support@peacequestcapebreton.ca.