24 March 2003: the DII tried to offer an alternative to war. It failed.
 

While the debate continues to date in the Arab press over that initial "statement of Arab (and Turkish) intellectuals" requesting (1) the departure of Saddam Hussein and his aides to prevent the war, and (2) the deployment of human rights monitors to prevent chaos in the aftermath, at least the first part has been taken over by events.

Still, two questions remain:
1. Can the idea of ending the dictatorship in Iraq be considered as a possible rallying plan for stopping the war ?

2. Can the immediate deployment of human rights monitors, especially now that it has been put emphatically across by Amnesty International and a number of human rights organisations, be revived as a top priority for the international community ?

In the fog of war, ways out of violence do not come across easily, especially when such solutions are rooted in humanism, or its 21st century-form, human rights.