Gloucestershire Weapons Inspectors
ANN PETTITT SAYS JOIN THE 'GWI' FOR A DAY AND INSPECT FAIRFORD FOR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.
My
decision to take a stand against the seemingly inevitable war on Iraq
has not been arrived at lightly. I’m a Labour Party member, I’m
not a pacifist, the only thing I’m militant about is the need for
moderation and to listen to other points of view.
I can’t bring myself to say “All war is horrible, peace is the only humanitarian option.” The people of Iraq suffer under the continuation of Saddam’s regime, and I can’t ignore that. To me this is therefore not a simple moral issue. My overriding feeling is really one of mistrust of this present US administration and its motives, whilst I am not anti-American and find much to admire in that society – much of the information on this website comes from there, after all. In the end, I fear the consequences of war, the effects of polarisation, the inevitable proliferation of terrorist extremists, the crossing of the nuclear threshhold, will be more terrible than the consequences of ‘peace’.
When, quite by chance, I stumbled across the ‘GWI’ and realised that USAF Fairford could be in use, in a matter of weeks, as a launch-pad for what I still consider the most truly evil weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, I felt my mind making itself up. Your brilliant and simple idea had a certain je ne sais quoi –or maybe I just like dressing up. I certainly favour the use of imagination and art against the military mind-set, over worn-out slogans, etc.
Our recent visit to you confirmed my suspicions – you are every bit as weird as you appear to be. Thus reassured, we lost no time in contacting friends here in West Wales and deciding to support you with a demonstration by more “weapons inspectors” on the 26 January. We shall do our utmost to persuade other members of the public to respond to this initiative. Together, we have no big organisation, no spare money, little spare time. We are ordinary people who lead busy lives and have to work to earn a living. But I haven’t felt this need to take action to avert a potential catastrophe, nor felt this sense of public unease and unrepresented frustration, since that day 22 years ago when I decided to organise a march by women to another base no-one had heard of, called Greenham Common.
All we had then was other people’s goodwill, in the face of widespread disbelief that ordinary, powerless people like us could make any difference to history. The rest, as they say, is history. So let’s take heart!
Support the GWI! Become a weapons inspector! Refuse to allow Weapons
of Mass Destruction. Come to Fairford, bring your family, bring your friends.
We need to give a clear message to our government and the US government.
Please pass this message to as many people as you can.
Regards, Ann Pettitt - Jan 2003