A Modest Proposal for a 'Third Way'

We are at a critical moment in time. A real possibility exists to prevent war on Iraq. However, in one week it could be too late. If you have ever wanted to take action, the time is now.

High school and college students across the country are boycotting school and shouting, "Books not Bombs." Hundreds of thousands of Americans have gathered in New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other cities declaring, "War is Not the Answer!" Great Britain witnessed the largest march in its history as more than 1 million people pleaded, "Don't Attack Iraq!"

Germany, France, China, and Russia openly oppose war without U.N. support, and Great Britain could change course.

Now, for the first time, a clear and compelling third alternative has emerged. Following an hour-long meeting of U.S. church leaders with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, led by Sojourners executive director Jim Wallis, we have outlined a six-point plan that details a more effective way to remove Saddam Hussein from power without killing innocent people.

1. Remove Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party from power.

The Bush administration and the antiwar movement are agreed on one thing--Saddam Hussein is a brutal and dangerous dictator. Virtually nobody has sympathy for him, either in the West or in the Arab world, but everyone has great sympathy for the Iraqi people who have already suffered greatly from war, a decade of sanctions, and the corrupt and violent regime of Saddam Hussein. So let's separate Saddam from the Iraqi people. Target him, but protect them.

As urged by Human Rights Watch and others, the U.N. Security Council should establish an international tribunal to indict Saddam and his top officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Indicting Saddam would send a clear signal to the world that he has no future. It would set into motion both internal and external forces that might remove him from power. It would make it clear that no solution to this conflict will include Saddam or his supporters staying in power. Morton Halperin pointed out, "As we have seen in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, such tribunals can discredit and even destroy criminal regimes." Focusing on Saddam and not the Iraqi people would clearly demonstrate that the United States' sole interest is in changing his regime and disarming his weapons rather than in harming the Iraqi people. It would cause world opinion to coalesce against Saddam's regime rather than against a U.S.-led war, as is now happening.

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