Message-ID: <34E37F3B.1A6E@princeton.edu>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 18:01:15 -0500
From: "Ted B. Taylor" <tbtaylor@Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: tbtaylor@Princeton.EDU
Organization: Center for Energy & Environmental Studies
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: president@whitehouse.gov
CC: tbtaylor@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Don't Bomb Iraq
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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Mr. President:

	I strongly urge you not to order the bombing of possible sites in Iraq
where chemical, biological, or nuclear materials suitable for making
weapons may be stored or being produced. I cannot forsee any conditions
under which your order to proceed with the bombings the US is now
prepared to carry out would not be immoral, hypocritical, and
exceedingly dangerous. Such action would kill many innocent Iraqi
civilians, perhaps tens of thousands or more if the toxic materials are
released to the atmosphere. If you proceed with such an order I believe
it likely that you will be judged by history as having been personally
responsible for the worst mistake ever made by a President of the United
States.
	Credible consequences of this mistake could include not only the
slaughter of thousands of Iraqi children and adult civilians. It could
trigger a sustained period of vindictive slaughter of tens of thousands
or more people in the United States and elsewhere by terrorists using
clandestinely placed weapons of mass destruction -- chemical,
biological, or possibly nuclear. Such events could then trigger World
War III and massive global loss of life..   

				Sincerely,

				Theodore B. Taylor
				Visiting Fellow
				Princeton University
				Princeton, NJ 08544