Veterans Call to Conscience Speakers Bureau James Ryan Short Bio

Born and raised in New York City, Jim Ryan is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served six years in the United States Army as an artillery officer. After military service, he had a career in the investment business. He holds graduate degrees in business administration, English literature, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. Now a writer, he has lived in Istanbul, Turkey for the past few years. The current actions and policies of the United States government debase all of his concepts of justice and patriotism, concepts that were profound formative influences in his life. This saddens him beyond measure. The global destabilization resulting from the imperious policies of the United States government is a tragedy for this planet. The intent of the American government to wage unilateral and preemptory war against Iraq and its long-suffering people without a mandate from the United Nations is criminal and unjust in the extreme. Military forces and their civilian leaders may be subject to prosecution as war criminals for such illegal aggression, President Bush's assertion of some vague, inherent right to strike first notwithstanding. The hectoring and dismissive attitude of the President of the United States and his advisors and lieutenants casts great discredit on the reputation of the people of the United States of America from whom all governmental power flows. Finally, the rationale for the attack on Iraq is specious. No weapons of mass destruction have been found, yet the rant from America continues. So why not let this massive UN inspection and monitoring program continue? The absolute power to destroy other nations should finally be under the absolute control of ALL nations. With the global threat of weapons of mass destruction arising around the globe - in North Korea, for example - the current inspection program in Iraq can serve as a valuable model for what will be needed in other so-called "rogue states." Quite simply, it's good business, certainly vastly cheaper than the economic and human waste inherent in war. Why then this rush to destroy? Where is the clear and present danger to the world of Iraq, a country that can barely get an airplane off the ground? What, aside from oil, is this war worth? Iraq is a starving nation. Almost half the population relies on a government food program that provides minimum sustenance by international standards. Half the nation is unemployed. Most families are without any economic resources at all. Iraqi children are severely malnourished. Sanitation and water treatment facilities are in shambles. Disease is rampant. Countering this so-called threat to the world - better called a disgrace - the United States government has promised to deliver a firestorm of 800 cruise missiles over the first two days of its assault. This, in the words of a government official, will produce "shock and awe." Indeed it will. And death and destruction and terror of unfathomable proportions. And, oh yes, an even deeper abiding hatred of the United States by the Arab world. One only has to think the tiniest bit to see this. But sadly, a president, who in only 18 months has squandered the support and sympathy of the world, seems hardly to be thinking at all. For now his once-noble war against terror seems to be merely one of aggression against a helpless people, an attack motivated by imperialism, conquest, and hegemony. And all under the pretext of bringing "democracy" to Iraq! Such nonsense, for we have tolerated undemocratic governments for decades and longer, like Saudi Arabia, for example. Tragically, if the United States goes to war alone, it will, to its disgrace, violate the UN Charter and undo the work that has spanned most of the last century to develop an international community. It will have behaved as badly as the "rogue states" that it rails long and loud about. The work of the United Nations must continue. Striving together, the world must seek those issues that unite rather than divide, to fight against tyranny, poverty, disease, and, yes, war itself. While not perfect, our United Nations is truly, in the words of John F. Kennedy, "our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace." And so the United Nations remains today, our last best hope. Instead of making the bombs of war, let us further develop our instruments of peace, like the UN weapons inspection program, for example. Truly, it is the least, best thing we can do. Peace.