Historians Against the War
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Historians Against the War (HAW) was founded in Chicago, Illinois at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association. A group of historians drafted the following statement which 2209 people subsequently signed:
We historians call for a halt to the march towards war against Iraq. We are deeply concerned about the needless destruction of human life, the undermining of constitutional government in the U.S., the egregious curtailment of civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad, and the obstruction of world peace for the indefinite future.[1]
After the start of the 2003 Iraq War, HAW drafted a new Statement on the U.S. Occupation of Iraq:
As historians, teachers, and scholars, we oppose the expansion of United States empire and the doctrine of pre-emptive war that have led to the occupation of Iraq. We deplore the secrecy, deception, and distortion of history involved in the administration's conduct of a war that violates international law, intensifies attacks on civil liberties, and reaches toward domination of the Middle East and its resources. Believing that both the Iraqi people and the American people have the right to determine their own political and economic futures (with appropriate outside assistance), we call for the restoration of cherished freedoms in the United States and for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.[2]
In 2006, HAW organized a conference on Empire, Resistance, and the War in Iraq at the University of Texas, Austin. This was the first scholarly conference in the U.S. to examine the origins of and opposition to the war in Iraq in historical perspective.[3] In 2008, it established a new group blog, the Hawblog.
