February 28, 2003

GUEST COMMENTARY

The Leagues of Women Voters of the Monterey Peninsula and the Salinas Valley urge our national leaders to continue working with the United Nations to resolve the situation with Iraq. International cooperation is an essential element in guarding against terrorism and protecting all nations from attack, particularly those that may involve nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

Working with the United Nations provides the U.S. with many foreign and domestic policy advantages: It ensures a full debate on a range of alternative policies and actions. It builds unity of purpose by clearly defining the objectives to be fulfilled. It assures the world that the U.S. is not acting solely for its benefit while reassuring Americans that the U.S. is not acting alone. It provides the legitimacy of international law. It increases the changes of long-term success through international peacekeeping and nation-building efforts. For these reasons the United Nations should be an important component of U.S. foreign policy. We should work actively and constructively within the United Nations, exercising diplomatic leadership in advance of decision-making. Past resolutions have shown the effectiveness of multilateral action in dealing with international policies.

For decades, the League of Women Voters has supported the role of the United Nations in developing, maintaining and protecting peace around the world. When multilateral action is needed to combat terrorism, to establish the institutions and conditions for real economic and social development in post-war Afghanistan and other countries and to guard against weapons proliferation, the active involvement of the international community and the United Nations is even more important.

Beverly G. Bean, President, League of Women Voters of the Monterey Peninsula
Anne Herendeen, President, League of Women Voters of the Salinas Valley