12.03.2005
Cities Voice Opposition to War in Iraq (FreeP.com)
Resolutions Part of the Trend, Experts Say
BY JOHN YAUKEY
Gannett News
2 December 2005
WASHINGTON -- Cities don't make foreign policy.
But that hasn't stopped dozens of towns from Berkeley, Calif., to Chicago to Cambridge, Mass., from passing resolutions calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
The resolutions typically note the growing U.S. military death toll, now more than 2,100, as well as the financial burden, approaching a quarter-trillion dollars. The Chicago City Council calculated it could pay more than 31,000 teachers for a year with its annual share of the war cost.
It's part of what polls indicate and social observers say is a growing antiwar sentiment among Americans now exhausted from the war, if not philosophically against it.
"I follow the news, and it's painful," said Michigan resident Deborah Regal, a member of the antiwar group Military Families Speak Out and the mother of a Marine in Iraq. "It just grinds you down to the point where you're very conscious of every day that passes because you know what the troops are going through."
Keenly aware of this, President George W. Bush sought to shore up support for the war Wednesday by outlining a 35-page plan for stabilizing Iraq and eventually withdrawing U.S. troops.
(More ... Cities voice opposition to war in Iraq) ¶ 18:42
BY JOHN YAUKEY
Gannett News
2 December 2005
WASHINGTON -- Cities don't make foreign policy.
But that hasn't stopped dozens of towns from Berkeley, Calif., to Chicago to Cambridge, Mass., from passing resolutions calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
The resolutions typically note the growing U.S. military death toll, now more than 2,100, as well as the financial burden, approaching a quarter-trillion dollars. The Chicago City Council calculated it could pay more than 31,000 teachers for a year with its annual share of the war cost.
It's part of what polls indicate and social observers say is a growing antiwar sentiment among Americans now exhausted from the war, if not philosophically against it.
"I follow the news, and it's painful," said Michigan resident Deborah Regal, a member of the antiwar group Military Families Speak Out and the mother of a Marine in Iraq. "It just grinds you down to the point where you're very conscious of every day that passes because you know what the troops are going through."
Keenly aware of this, President George W. Bush sought to shore up support for the war Wednesday by outlining a 35-page plan for stabilizing Iraq and eventually withdrawing U.S. troops.
(More ... Cities voice opposition to war in Iraq) ¶ 18:42
