The undersigned organizations have joined together because we believe that military action against Iran would not be in the national interest of the United States nor its allies in the region nor Europe and Asia. Our organizations represent a broad spectrum of political perspectives in the U.S. that are united in our belief that military action would be clearly detrimental to the national interests of the United States and its allies in the region. We urge you to call immediate congressional hearings on administration plans to attack Iran and support diplomacy between the United States and Iran without preconditions.

Among the reasons we oppose apparent Bush Administration plan to widen the war by attacking Iran are:

- It could provoke Iran to retaliate by halting or threatening the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf. This would have a devastating effect on the world economy. If Iran was even partly successful, it could raise gasoline prices to $5 per gallon for Americans, according to many economists. A prolonged shortage of oil would very much constrict the entire world economy and put an end to our great era of economic growth. Such an event would cause commodity prices to collapse and a big drop in Chinese purchase of U.S. bonds, with a resultant severe rise in domestic interest rates.

- It will put U.S. soldiers and American interests in the region at far greater risk, not just in Iraq but in surrounding countries. At the very least we could expect many more attacks upon our supply lines between Kuwait and Baghdad, with many more American casualties.

- It will further overextend U.S. forces, already under a great deal of stress, and greatly restrict the ability of the U.S. to respond to other threats which may arise.

- Another lawless attack by America would further undermine legitimate efforts to prevent acts of terror directed against the U.S. by accelerating a cycle of violence and by creating even more terrorists targeting the U.S.and U.S. interests abroad for many years to come.

- Eighty-five percent of Iranians in America oppose our bombing their homeland, even though they oppose the government there. Attacking Iran would reinforce the current dictatorship and unite all Iranians against America.

- It will threaten U.S. allies in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, with retaliation. Iran has already warned the small Gulf States they their oil facilities would be at risk in retaliation for any U.S. attack on Iran. Their and the Saudi oil facilities are totally open to aerial missile attack. Just rising insurance rates could result in the suspension of oil shipments. We don't know for sure that the U.S. can protect such targets from every missile or ground threat which would exist.

- Even a temporary shutting down of the Straits of Hormuz would further weaken Europe via-a-viz Russian oil power and make it even more dependent upon Russian energy supplies.

- Another unilateral American attack on another Muslim nation would make us every more isolated in the world, with even more enemies.

- It will create a devastating and unnecessary humanitarian disaster that is sure to turn the international community against the U.S. Thousands of innocent Iranians would be killed.

- As was the case with Iraq, military action against Iran is being justified on false premises and without conclusive intelligence that Iran poses an imminent threat to the United States. There is no credible intelligence confirming that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. U.S. and other intelligence agencies estimate that Iran is still up to ten years away from developing a nuclear weapon if it indeed has such a program. This provides America with ample time to resolve this diplomatically and the Iranian people with a chance to advance reforms that will put an end to the theocracy in Iran. Time may be running out for George Bush, but it is not running out for America.

- Claims that Iran is directly assisting insurgents in Iraq remain unsubstantiated and implausible since the majority of identified insurgents are Sunnis as is al-Qaeda, while the Iranians are Shi'ites linked to parties within the current Iraqi government.

- Given 26 years of US refusal to start a dialogue with Iran and recent setbacks in the United Nations Security Council, mounting pressure and preconditions are not sufficient to prevent Iran from advancing its nuclear program. Per the recommendations of the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group, a US-Iran diplomatic strategy can help stabilize Iraqi sectarian violence and provide a foundation for broadening discussions to include the nuclear program and other grievances.

In the absence of talks, President Bush's escalation of inflammatory rhetoric against Iran, his administration's refusal to rule out military action, the recent deployment of military assets, changes in the rules of engagement in Iraq regarding Iranians, all indicate that a military attack is likely.

We see a disturbing pattern emerging in comments by President Bush and other administration officials, provocative deployments of U.S. military assets, changes in rules of engagement vis-à-vis Iranians in Iraq, and press reports that seem to indicate preparations for U.S. military action against Iran are underway.

For these reasons, we urge you to use all the power of the Congress to prevent another disaster for America by ruling out the use of any appropriations for the purpose of funding covert action in Iran or for the use of military force against Iran. We also urge you to scrutinize all intelligence presented on Iran, call for a serious diplomatic strategy, and use Congressional authority under the Constitution to require authorization before any use of force against Iran. Only the Congress can declare war and President Bush should be warned that he will be impeached if he violates the Constitution in this matter.

is published every Thursday.