Anna Bachmann who is in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team, organized by Voices in the Wilderness sent the statement below, a set of comments on the State of the Union.

To access related material (such as comments on Colin Powell's recent address to the Security Council and Anna's diary "Four Days in Baghdad") go to www.iraqpeaceteam.org.

Quotations from President George W. Bush's State of the Union address, January 28, 2003 with Responses from the Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad:

1. "The qualities of courage and compassion we strive for in America also determine our conduct abroad." How we wish this were true. As many observers have pointed out, after defeat in the Gulf War, disarmament of major weapons, and 12 years of sanctions that have prohibited a replacement of equipment, Iraq is militarily the weakest of all countries in region. How much courage is required for the world's largest superpower to make war on a militarily weak country? True courage is better shown through restraint and justice.

Since 1991 it is estimated that more than 1.7 million Iraqis have died unnecessarily from diseases and cancers related to the Gulf War and its aftermath[1]. Of these more than 500,000 were children. Until recently the importation of food and medicines were prohibited by economic sanctions. Now the U.S. declares its intent to launch an attack and invasion that studies have shown will create far larger death and destruction for Iraq's civilian population[2]. Where is the compassion in any of this? Indeed, the behavior of the U.S. and its allies in targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure are crimes of war under section 56 of the 1977 Geneva Convention.

2. "In Afghanistan we helped to liberate an oppressed people and we will continue helping them secure their country, rebuild their society, and educate all their children, boys and girls."

While significant aid to rebuild Afghanistan was promised before the U.S. attack on that country, very little has been delivered. By far the largest fraction of aid is military. Education and rebuilding are a very small part of the U.S. effort.

3. "As our nation moves troops and builds alliances to make our world safer, we must also remember our calling, as a blessed country, is to make the world better."

Destruction of Iraqi society and its people does not make the world safer or better. A war on Iraq is contrary to American values for a rule of law, cooperation among nations, and reverence for the life and liberty of every human being. To be true to our calling as a country we must embrace those values that make a better world and reject a war that will primarily hurt the civilian population of Iraq.

4. "A doctor in rural South Africa describes his frustration. He says, "We have no medicines, many hospitals tell people, 'You've got AIDS. We can't help you. Go home and die'." In an age of miraculous medicines, no person should have to hear these words."

We applaud any efforts the U.S. makes to support prevention and treatment of AIDS. We hope this principle might also be applied to Iraq where it has been U.S. policy to deny needed medicines and medical equipment for cancer and other curable illnesses. The lack of medicines and equipment especially for curable cancers has forced Iraq hospitals to say to cancer patients, "We can't help you. Go home and die." This situation will change only when the U.S. ends its insistence on continuing economic sanctions.

5. "In this global war against a scattered network of killers, the war goes on and we are winning."

There is no evidence that this is true. U.S. belligerence and its policies of intimidation and destruction have alienated people throughout the world. U.S. support for war on Arab and Palestinian states have increased the desperation of Muslim people and have increased the numbers willing to resort to desperate, terrorist measures.

6. "All told more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: they are no longer a problem to the United States..." It is deplorable that the President of the United States should smirkingly celebrate the extrajudicial execution of alleged criminals in violation of principles of justice and due process.

7. "One-by-one the terrorists are learning the meaning of American justice."

8. "As we fight this war we will remember where it began: here in this country."

The problem of terrorism did not start on September 11. There is a long history of why people become so desperate as to commit terrorist acts. There is an equally long history of U.S. support for repressive regimes and the denial of basic human rights. The kind of simplistic thinking shown here only detracts from the effort to find constructive strategies that promote a safer world.

9. "I am instructing the leaders of the FBI, the CIA, the Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center, to merge and analyze all threat information in a single location." There are good historical reasons why there has been a separation of duties between domestic and international law enforcement and between military action and law enforcement action. When there has been a confusion about the separation of these duties there has often been significant abuse of police powers. We are very concerned that the kind of interagency collaboration that Mr. Bush is ordering (seemingly without authorization from Congress) is building the foundation for a unified police establishment more along the lines of the Soviet Union's KGB or Germany's Gestapo.

10. "We will not permit the triumph of violence in the affairs of men."

Yet it is the "triumph of violence" that the U.S. is seeking in Iraq.

11. "Now, in this century, the ideology of power and domination has appeared again...."

Indeed, it has appeared again. We deeply regret that it is our own U.S. government that is promoting "the ideology of power and domination". The State of the Union address clearly reflects this ideology.

12. "This nation and our friends are all that stand between a world at peace and a world of chaos and constant alarm."

The destruction from terrorist acts, as terrible as they are, is small compared to the military attacks carried out by the United States. It is the United States that has declared "endless war". Today the United States is the nation most strongly promoting a "world of chaos and constant alarm".

13. "The course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others."

The Bush administration once again shows its contempt for cooperation among nations and world opinion. World issues are not just U.S. issues. Respect for democracy demands that all people who are affected by a problem have some say in how the problem is resolved. The President seems to deny this. Following the world wars of the last century there was widespread recognition that it would take strong cooperation among all nations to ensure that these wars did not happen again. The United Nations was established out of that conviction. Today more than ever the interdependence of all countries needs to be recognized and promoted. Therefore we regret Bush's disrespectful, isolationist stance.