[Peace-discuss] For the Resolutions Working Group

[C. G. Estabrook]

[In regard to our discussion Sunday evening about calling for
resolutions on withdrawal from Iraq from our local city
councils, here's an account from the Washington Post about how
popular this move is.  --CGE]

  Cities Show All Politics Is Local by Weighing In on Iraq
  By Peter Slevin and Chris Cillizza
  Sunday, November 20, 2005; A04

The Chicago City Council may not have much say in when U.S.
troops come home from Iraq. But that does not mean it has
nothing to say.

The city is one of 67 around the country that have passed
resolutions calling for U.S. withdrawal, in hopes that they
can help start a groundswell that will force the hand of the
Bush administration and Congress.

Others include Chapel Hill., N.C.; Gary, Ind.; dozens of towns
in Vermont; and, perhaps no surprise, such famously liberal
municipalities as Berkeley, Calif., and Cambridge, Mass. The
resolutions typically call on the U.S. government "to commence
an orderly and rapid withdrawal of United States military
personnel from Iraq," while also shipping nonmilitary aid
"necessary for the security of Iraq's citizens and for the
rebuilding of Iraq."

The efforts are being pushed by the D.C.-based Institute for
Policy Studies, which sponsored the prewar "Cities for Peace"
campaign that helped rally 165 cities to oppose the 2003
invasion. Director John Cavanagh, pointing to polls that show
growing public frustration with the Iraq war, said that "we're
at a fascinating tipping point."

"The Iraq story has become much more central than any of us
would have predicted in defining how the people in power
govern and what their values are," Cavanagh said. "I can
imagine a majority within a year to 18 months that would vote
to cut off the money for the war. That is a goal. There are
different ways to end the war, but that's the one that feels
clearest."

How far the effort goes remains to be seen. Cavanagh is the
first to concede that cities alone cannot make foreign policy.

The Chicago resolution, passed in September, took note of the
death toll, as well as the strain on U.S. military, National
Guard and Reserve units. It cites the war's cost -- upward of
$200 million -- and argues that Chicago's portion could have
paid for Head Start for 238,056 children for one year or
31,147 public school teachers for a year. It also charges that
the treatment of prisoners has inflamed anti-American passions
and increased the terrorist threat to U.S. citizens.

After the Sacramento City Council voted 8 to 1 for a "rapid
and comprehensive" withdrawal on Nov. 1, members received
hundreds of threatening e-mails saying things such as "You
should be hanged" and "Hope your children are beheaded." The
e-mails mostly came from out of state.

...

Quotable

"You'll have a parent or two here, as you know, whose tragic
grief from the tragic loss of a loved one, of a child, causes
their mental thinking to be a little destabilized. That's
understandable."

-- Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) at a news conference Thursday,
discussing parents of slain soldiers who turned antiwar.

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