It is now clear that the government of the United States of America under the leadership of George W. Bush seeks to impose a total domination of the world, and of the oil resources in the Gulf Region by war. The war on Iraq is an economic, political and military imperialist invasion which attempts to hide its blatant neo-colonial nature behind slogans of democracy and freeing the Iraqi people from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

People can no longer be misled by such slogans. The government of the United States continues to protect and support dictatorial and corrupt regimes in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab region as long as this corresponds to the interests of the shrinking minority of big capitalists who dominate the multi-national corporations in the world. The most dangerous dictator of all is George W. Bush himself who rules in the name of the most reactionary fundamentalist and racist wing that American capital has ever known. He has disregarded all the rules of international law, refused to conform to the charter of the United Nations which has as its aim the maintenance of peace, has refused to submit to the decisions of its Security Council, and has gone to war against the suffering people of Iraq in the face of opposition from the majority of governments in the world. He has flouted the will of all peoples shown in hundreds of ways including demonstrations in more than six hundred cities, which started months before the war.
In the Arab region he has continued to support the dictator Ariel Sharon whose hands were stained with the blood of thousands of men, women and children in Lebanon and who continues to perpetrate a racist massacre against the tortured and defenseless people of Palestine.

George Bush and the group of men and women who implement these policies in the United States government have perpetrated a barbaric massacre against the Iraqi people yet no one has been able to stop him. He has openly flouted the charter of the United Nations and yet the United Nations has not taken any of the punitive measures that have been taken against other rulers in the world.
If the Secretary General Kofi Annan is unable to take a stand he should resign. Why have the governments who insisted on a political solution, on peace rather than war, remained silent? And was not the humiliating open or hidden submission of the Arab governments to the dictates of American policy a cover which permitted this war? Yet they continue to rule.

Arab men, women and children like many others took to the streets, despite the tear gas bombs, the electric truncheons, and the guns supplied by manufacturers in the United States, despite the courts and the prisons where human rights are trod on every day and torture techniques e utilized in the punitive cells.

Arab governments are the metal shield that has permitted George Bush to dominate our region, to use military bases in the war, to hold back the men and women whose struggle can contribute to defeating the policies of the war mongering few.

The members of the Arab Women's Solidarity Association insist that:

1) Kofi Annan, together with the representatives of the member states in the United Nations take the stand against the war. If not he should resign.
2) There should be a withdrawal of all military forces from the Arab countries, and a liquidation of all military bases.
3) George Bush be judged by an international court as a criminal who has committed war crimes.

For the members of the Arab Women's Solidarity Association

Nawal El Saadawi (President)
9 April 2003