Whereas the United States (US) government has made clear preparation to take military action against Iraq;
Whereas through such a war University of Oregon (UO) faculty, staff and students will have their careers, work and education interrupted and lives put in jeopardy;
Whereas innocent Iraqi civilians, who have suffered enormously under the rule of Saddam Hussein and UN sanctions, will be injured and killed;
Whereas the high cost of this war may further deepen the US economic crisis which continues to damage the UO’s fiscal condition;
Whereas a war with Iraq would threaten to further destabilize the Middle East, possibly leading to wider regional war and increased support for groups dedicated to terrorism, endangering the citizens of the US including members of the UO community as they perform their work both within and outside the US;
Whereas Iraq has not been proven, through disclosed documents, to have committed acts of aggression against the US that might justify a response of war;
Whereas the US government has presented no credible evidence that Iraq has intentions of harming the citizens of this country or that Iraq presents a threat to the US;
Whereas diplomatic solutions do not appear to have been exhausted, and therefore the fundamental intellectual responsibility of the US leadership to provide justification of war showing proof that all other means have failed has not been satisfied;
Whereas the vast majority of the international community has not lent its support for war against Iraq;
Whereas the United Nations (UN) Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1441 enforcing the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq where it asserts that the Security Council alone has the authority to determine what action to take regarding current or future Iraqi violations of their resolutions (Article 14);
Whereas the UN Charter declares unequivocally in Articles 41 and 42 that the UN Security Council alone has the power to authorize the use of military force against any nation in noncompliance of its resolutions;
Whereas a preemptive war waged by our government without UN authorization would be in clear violation of the UN Charter;
Whereas the UN Charter was entered into as a treaty with necessary congressional approval with the U.N. Participation Act of 1945;
Whereas Article VI of the US Constitution states that “all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land”, so that any act that violates the UN Charter will also be in direct violation of the Constitution of the United States of America;
Be it resolved that the University of Oregon opposes the US engagement in war in Iraq at this time.
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