[Peace] Fwd: Chicago Anti-War Resolution

[Alfred Kagan]

FYI, draft Chicago resolution

>From: Peter Lems <PLems at afsc.org>
>To: "'akagan at uiuc.edu'" <akagan at uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Chicago Anti-War Resolution
>Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 14:25:12 -0500
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>[The Chicago Anit-War Resolution can be found in the portside
>archives at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portside/message/3384 ]
>
>==========
>Response of Chicago Alderman Joe Moore to Chicago Sun-Times
>editorial criticizing the City Council resolution on Iraq.
>
>Below is my response to the Sun-Times editorial criticizing the City
>Council resolution on Iraq. Hopefully, they will print it in full.
>Please feel free to forward it to whomever you wish.
>
>Joe Moore,
>Alderman, 49th Ward
>===
>
>December 7, 2002
>
>Letters-to-the-Editor
>Chicago Sun-Times
>
>To the Editor:
>
>I must take issue with your recent editorial criticizing the City
>Council resolution that opposes a preemptive U.S. military strike in
>Iraq ("A Premature Leap Into World Affairs," Dec. 4). While I
>certainly will not question your description (albeit tongue in
>cheek) of life in the 49th Ward, I do strongly challenge your claim
>that the resolution has no relevance to the city of Chicago.
>
>According to the Congressional Budget Office a military adventure
>against Iraq will cost our nation between $9 and $13 billion a
>month. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences estimates the war
>and post-war occupation of Iraq could cost as much as $1.9 trillion
>over a 10-year period. Just where does the Sun-Times think the money
>will come from? From an increase in taxes? Of course not. President
>Bush has reaffirmed his intention to make permanent his trillion-
>dollar tax cut plan. No, the war will be financed by deficit
>spending and drastic cuts in domestic spending. In either case, my
>neighborhood and the city of Chicago will suffer the consequences of
>a sagging economy and even more cuts in federally funded projects
>and programs. Just about every initiative that improves the quality
>of life of Chicago residents is supported at least in part by
>federal dollars-affordable housing, transportation, health care,
>childcare, education, public safety, and energy bill assistance for
>low-income families. The list goes on and on. These programs are
>already suffering reductions in funding, and will suffer even more
>dramatic cuts if our nation finances a war against Iraq.
>
>And it is Chicago's sons and daughters who will be recruited,
>perhaps even conscripted, to fight that war. Given the very dire
>consequences that waging an unprovoked war on Iraq would have on
>Chicago's neighborhoods, the members of the City Council are at
>least as qualified as newspaper editorial writers to weigh in on
>this important foreign affairs issue.
>
>The 24 aldermen who now sponsor the City Council resolution
>certainly support our nation's right to defend itself when its
>security is at real risk. Our leaders in Washington have yet to make
>the case, however, that such an imminent danger exists. Where is the
>evidence that we are in more danger of an attack by Iraqi weapons of
>mass destruction than, say, North Korean weapons of mass
>destruction? Yet there is no talk of a preemptive strike against
>North Korea.
>
>The arguments against a hasty rush into war are not those of college
>sophomores, as your editorial claims, but belong to well-known
>foreign policy "hawks," such as James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger,
>Brent Scowcroft and General Norman Schwartzkopf. They all have
>cautioned against a hasty U.S. military exercise against Iraq and
>have urged the president to first pursue a policy of diplomacy and
>containment (a policy, by the way, that worked for forty years
>against a far more serious threat posed by the Soviet Union). It is
>that same thoughtful and deliberate approach to the Iraqi crisis
>that my colleagues and I are advocating through our resolution.
>
>Very truly yours,
>
>Alderman Joe Moore 49th Ward
>
>
>
>Peter Lems
>American Friends Service Committee
>1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia PA 19102
>Tel: 215/241-7170  /  Fax:215/241-7177
>http://www.afsc.org/conscience/Default.shtm


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu