October 7, 2002

CONTACT:
Linda Simmons Hight
Media Relations Director
Church of Scientology International
6331 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 1200
Los Angeles, CA 90028-6329
Phone (323) 960-3500
Fax (323) 960-3508
E-mail mediarelationsdir@scientology.net

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL POSITION ON THE WAR IN IRAQ

The Church of Scientology International joins with other religious institutions in America and abroad in cautioning the United States government to exercise reason and restraint in seeking to find a peaceful solution to overcoming international terrorism and creating peace in the Middle East.

L. Ron Hubbard wrote in May of 1950: “Wars never solve the need of wars...The quarrel of society with society, nation with nation, has many causes, all of them more or less irrational. There have been many times when one society was forced to crush another less sentient than itself. But with each clash, new traumas were born both in the international scene and with the societies themselves. There is no national problem in the world today which cannot be resolved by reason alone.”

We are not unmindful that there is evil in the world and that this evil must be restrained for the good of all peaceful nations on Earth. But we stand with our fellow churches in urging the President to work with other nations in removing that evil from the world by means of a just and rational approach.