Opposition to George W. Bush's 2004 reelection

Peace Action

The Political Action Committee of the nation's largest peace organization formally calls for the defeat of Bush. Peace Action PAC's "dis-endorsement" of Bush is unprecedented in the 47-year history of the group. [1]

"George W. Bush's foreign policy is counterintuitive, radical and dangerous. Because of Bush's pursuit of security through aggression and unilateralism, its planned building of new U.S. nuclear weapons and its exportation of the weapons around the world, Bush has pushed this country and the world towards a cataclysm rather than towards safety. Bush has been so harmful to progress on the issues of nuclear disarmament, international cooperation, the arms trade and the elimination of war as a means of resolving international conflict that this country and the world cannot risk another four years of his failed leadership. We feel we have no choice but to issue this unusual 'dis-endorsement'," said Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace Action PAC.

"Bush and his administration of radical right recidivists--Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Negroponte, Abrams et al--are proponents of the discredited violent policies of the last century. Because there are new threats, we must have a new, smarter foreign policy that is based on American democratic values, not simply a more brutal and violent one based on perceived expediency. Bush's foreign policy has done much damage to U.S and world security and that damage will take years to remediate. His foreign policy, in terms of human life lost worldwide, so far, has been akin to more than four World Trade Center attacks. This policy of institutionalized violence will guarantee more terror attacks on the U.S. and cannot be allowed to continue for another four years," concluded Martin.

48 Nobel Laureates

In an open letter dated 21 June 2004 [2]:

The prosperity, health, environment, and security of Americans depend on Presidential leadership to sustain our vibrant science and technology; to encourage education at home and attract talented scientists and engineers from abroad; and to nurture a business environment that transforms new knowledge into new opportunities for creating quality jobs and reaching shared goals.

President Bush and his administration are compromising our future on each of these counts. By reducing funding for scientific research, they are undermining the foundation of America's future. By setting unwarranted restrictions on stem cell research, they are impeding medical advances. By employing inappropriate immigration practices, they are turning critical scientific talent away from our shores. And by ignoring scientific consensus on critical issues such as global warming, they are threatening the earth's future. Unlike previous administrations, Republican and Democratic alike, the Bush administration has ignored unbiased scientific advice in the policy-making that is so important to our collective welfare.

Paul Findley (R-IL)

Findley served as a Member of Congress for 22 years, :[3]

"Today, for the first time, I worry deeply about America's future. We are in a deep hole. I believe President George W. Bush's decision to initiate war on Iraq will be the greatest and most costly blunder in American history. He has set America on the wrong course."

"I must speak out. As best I can, I must bestir those who will listen to the grave damage already done to our nation, and warn of still greater harm if Bush continues his present course during a second term in the White House."

• In the name of national security, the president has brought about fundamental, revolutionary changes that threaten our nation's moorings.

• At home and abroad, he has undercut time-honored principles of the rule of law.

• Abroad, he has made war a ready instrument of presidential policy instead of reserving it as a last resort should peril confront our nation.

• In public documents, he claims the personal authority to make war any time and any place he alone chooses, and the authority to use force to keep unfriendly nations from increasing their own military strength.

• His power is unprecedented. He directs a military budget greater than all other nations' combined. At his instant, personal command is more military power than any nation in all recorded history ever before possessed.

• He proclaims America the global policeman, and for that role he has already expanded a worldwide system of U.S. military bases. Four new ones are in place in Iraq and four others near the Caspian Sea.

• He orders the development and production of a new generation of nuclear arms for U.S. use only, meanwhile threatening other nations--Iran and North Korea, for example--against acquiring any of its own.

• Unleashing America's mighty sword, he brings about regime changes in Afghanistan and Iraq, but mires our forces in quagmires from which escape seems unlikely for many years.

• He isolates America from common undertakings with time-tested allies. He trivializes the United Nations and violates its charter.

• The president offers wars without end, and the Congress shouts its approval. But his use of America's vast arsenal is so reckless that he is regarded widely as the most dangerous man in the world.

Paul N. "Pete" McCloskey

McCloskey is a former Republican congressman from California, [4]:

"Accepting the premise that Bin Laden's declaration of war 10 years ago was against every government not based on the fundamentalist Islamic view of the Qur'an, including Iraq as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States, our president has chosen two unfortunate allies for this war."

"The fundamental Christians who believe there should be no Palestinian state are one; the fundamentalist Jews who read the Bible to mean they own the Palestinian territories as a matter of God-given right are the other. In both cases this only-too-apparent alliance serves to fuel the anger of our fundamentalist Islamic enemies and to help them attract young Muslims to make war on our occupying forces in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"As Thomas Friedman has said recently, our Mideast policy is insane."

Daniel N. Nelson

Nelson (Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University) is Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, University of New Haven. He has served in the State and Defense departments (1998-2002) and was Richard Gephardt's foreign policy advisor when he was House Majority Leader. [5]

"To the degree that ignorance, arrogance, paranoia and greed are all present, those who make decisions about war and peace will pursue a capacity-driven strategy, conflate discourses of war and peace, and incessantly strive for security through strength. Such decision-makers will, thereby, create enemies from friends, replacing mutual trust with endemic suspicion and fear."

"This is George W. Bush's America. With each pre-emptive step towards global unilateralism, enemies multiply, friendships wane, and the imbalance between threats and capacities approaches critical. The smell of defeat hangs in the air."