Our Philosophy

Mission Statement

We are a group of students and members of the Stanford community who have come together to work for peace and justice.
Believing in fundamental human rights and the preciousness of all human life, we welcome all people who oppose aggression, militarism, war crimes and war criminals.
We will work to create an inclusive, tolerant, respectful environment that engages with issues facing us in the world, and breaks the silence on the serious questions war raises in our community.
We will work, through nonviolent and peaceful means, to make Stanford a better place in a better world: free of war criminals, free of war profiteers, a place of knowledge and learning for peaceful ends, and aware of the role that the university, and more broadly the United States, plays in the world.
We will show that a better world is possible.
And we will have a good time doing it.

Manifesto

On March 19, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq on the grounds that it had WMDs and connections to al-Qaeda and 9/11. From the start, this war was wrong and, over time, the Bush administration’s justifications for invading Iraq were proven to be wrong. There were no WMDs found in Iraq and no link was found between Iraq and 9/11. And yet, after the deaths of millions of Iraqis and thousands of American soldiers, the United States is still occupying Iraq and Stanford’s campus silent and complacent about the issue. To make matters worse, the Hoover Institution awarded the title of “distinguished visiting fellow” to Bush’s former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Because of Hoover’s location on Stanford’s campus, Stanford is now virtually complicit with the unjust war in Iraq.
In order to combat Stanford’s silence about the war in Iraq and raise the voice of opposition to Rumsfeld’s appointment to the Hoover Institution, Stanford Says No to War was formed and approved as an official student organization on February 25, 2008. We, the students, of Stanford Says No to War are Stanford’s voice of anti-war sentiment. Join us in saying no to the war in Iraq, no to Rumsfeld’s affiliation with Stanford University, and no to giving awards and titles of honor to people with no honor!

War is the total failure of the human spirit.

War is the total failure of the human spirit.

    War has brought untold sorrow to humankind.
  • War brings horrors which affect every person on earth.
  • War is not a viable method of conflict resolution.
  • War is absurd.
  • The continuance of war in the twenty-first century should outrage every person on earth.
  • We can be confident that there will be a world without war, or there will not be a world.
We believe in fundamental human rights and the preciousness of all human life.

We believe in fundamental human rights and the preciousness of all human life.

  • We believe in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of women and men and of nations large and small.
  • We believe that all peoples have a right to self-determination, to pursue their own destiny free of foreign domination.
  • We believe that international relations should be based on cooperation and mutual respect.
  • We believe in the principles of peace and justice outlined in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  • We believe that laws and treaties restricting war powers and forbidding torture and aggression should be respected and enforced both within the U.S. and internationally.
  • We believe in the teachings of peace and justice contained in all the major religions.
  • We believe that change should be achieved through nonviolence and peaceful action.
  • We believe that, in a democracy, the people can and should impose moral standards on the State.
  • We believe that economic resources are better spent on health, welfare, and education, than on military power projection.
  • We believe that a society which spends more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
  • We believe that the “War on Terror” is inherently contradictory – that war is terror.
We say no to war.

We say no to war.

  • We say no to aggression of one nation against another.
  • We say no to any attempt by one nation to control or subvert another nation, or the world.
  • We say no to war crimes and violations of international law.
  • We say no to the cost war imposes on its victims, and its perpetrators – economic cost, human cost, and spiritual cost.
  • We say no to war criminals in our community.
  • We say no to research that advances death rather than life.
  • We say no to silence about the fundamental and serious questions war raises in our society and our community.
  • We are committed to breaking that silence.
We will create a safe space for all students opposed to aggression, militarism, war crimes and war criminals.

We will create a safe space for all students opposed to aggression, militarism, war crimes and war criminals.

  • We will create a spirit of inclusiveness, camaraderie and comradeship.
  • We will be tolerant and respectful in our interactions with each other and with all people.
  • We will burst a Stanford bubble that becomes a place to hide from what is happening in the world.
  • We will engage with the issues facing us in the world, and work to resolve them.
  • We will create a politically engaged and active community.
  • We will seek to understand and interpret the world.
  • The point, however, is to change it.
We will work to make Stanford a better place in a better world.

We will work to make Stanford a better place in a better world.

  • We will work to make Stanford a war criminal free zone.
  • We will work to make Stanford a war profiteer free zone.
  • We will work to make Stanford a place of knowledge and learning for peaceful ends.
  • We will work to raise awareness of the role the United States plays and has played in the world, and Stanford's place in it.
  • We will work to change Stanford.
  • We will work, individually, collectively, and through Stanford University, to change the United States and the world.
  • We will work, and we will not rest, until aggression, foreign domination and war are things of the past.
  • We will show that a better world is possible.
  • And we will begin to create it with our own actions.
We will work to achieve our goals in accordance with our principles.

We will work to achieve our goals in accordance with our principles.

  • We will achieve these goals through telling the truth, shocking as it may often be.
  • We will achieve these goals through enlightening each other, enlightening other students and members of the Stanford community.
  • We will achieve these goals in a spirit of tolerance, friendship and good humor.
  • We will achieve these goals nonviolently.
  • We will achieve these goals by collective action.
*This background photo depicts Vietnam War protesters as they marched to the Capitol in April 1971.*