This historic tour has been especially planned to give voice to women rarely if ever heard from Iraq, women who suffered through both Gulf wars and thirteen years of UN Sanctions. It provides the opportunity for Americans to hear directly from them. We are easily able to read and hear extensive interviews with US troops in Iraq and daily we hear the White House give its current reason for being there, but the voices of Iraqi women who lived in Iraq throughout both Gulf Wars and during the sanctions have scarcely been heard. Americans will have the opportunity to hear and dialogue with Amal Al-Khedairy and Nermin Al-Mufti.

Al -Khedairy, founder of a remarkable art center, saw her center destroyed during the first Gulf War and then saw the rebuilt center destroyed once again, along with irreplaceable art by Iraqi artists. Al-Mufti, trained as an international journalist with interests in civil society, archeology and culture, was forced to abandon this study and became a war correspondent because of the continued crises faced by the Iraqi people.

Nermin tells of a neighbor who worked for the government. He thought he would be taken in for questioning so he packed a small bag that included some clothes and his medicine and sat and waited, the door unlocked. When the troops came they broke down the door (despite his calling out, "The door is unlocked, please come in."). He was roughed up, shackled, a sack tied over his head, and led away. The family does not know where he is or how he is doing.

Both women lament the tragic effects of the invasion and are angry that while the Oil Ministry was protected by US troops, the hospitals and libraries and the National Art Museum were not. We may not agree with everything that they say, but it is important that we listen to them and try to understand their opinions, their tears, and their anger that come from having lived through invasion, bombing and occupation. Much of what they say has not even been reported by the media.

When Prime Minister Rabin of Israel was criticized for making peace with Yassir Arafat, he responded, "You make peace with your enemies, not your friends." Exactly. But people who try to understand the other side, who listen respectfully to them and work toward solving, rather than perpetuating conflict, are often accused of being against their country. Not so. Bringing speakers here from a country we've bombed and occupied gives us the opportunity to grow in understanding, for compassionate listening to someone we may radically disagree with opens us and that other person to each other's common humanity.

Understanding isn't enough to bring peace. But it is often the first step. The Fellowship of Reconciliation, which is comprised of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and people of other spiritual paths, has a long history of working for peace by bringing people together with very diverse perspectives. During the Cold War, the FOR had many exchanges and visits with Russians and other Soviets that helped erode the "enemy image" and prepare the way for the eventual end of the Cold War. After the US bombed Libya we sent a friendship delegation there and during the sanctions we sent American peacemakers to visit Iraqis in hospitals, schools, churches and mosques. At present the FOR is sending interfaith delegations to Israel and Palestine every two months, encouraging nonviolent voices there working for justice and reconciliation.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation believes in pre-emptive peace rather than pre-emptive war. The FOR believes in unilateral initiatives of goodwill and compassion. It rejects trying to bomb people into democracy and rejects having a massive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction while lecturing the rest of the world about how evil weapons of mass destruction are. The FOR rejects the terror of war as the way to end terrorism. War breeds terrorism and destroys people's lives while it leaves untouched that which breeds terrorism and violence: poverty, joblessness, disease and illiteracy. Addressing these issues brings hope, while war increases fear, legitimizes violence and encourages a culture of violence.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation affirms the deepest spiritual traditions of humanity and creating, as Martin Luther King said, "a way out of no way" and of building "the Beloved Community.

It is in this spirit that we have invited Nermin and Amal to the United States to speak their truth as a path to dialogue, forgiveness, and understanding. This is our way to contribute to rebuilding and sustaining a peaceful world.