State Capital To Join Cities Passing
Anti-War
Resolutions?
by Dan Bacher
Dissident Voice
February 9, 2003
The City of
Sacramento may join 64 cities and counties and one state, Hawaii, in passing
resolutions opposed to Bush’s planned war on Iraq if the City Council votes in
favor of a one page resolution endorsed by Mayor Heather Fargo.
The resolution
was brought before the council on February 6 by representatives from Veterans
for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the United Nations
Association. It was expected that the City Council would vote on the resolution
in its meeting on February 13.
The Resolution
states that “an attack by the U.S. and its allies against Iraq would violate
principles of international law, including Article 51 of the United Nations
charter, which lists use of war to a last resort in defense against an imminent
threat to a member state or the world.”
It continues ...
"the City of Sacramento calls upon the President of the United States, his
administration and the Congress to act in accordance with the U.S. Constitution
and international law in refraining from using military forces as a means of
conflict resolution except as a last resort.”
Pat Driscoll of
Veterans for Peace, Sacramento Chapter, told the council that 65 cities,
counties and states have passed the resolution and 86 more were underway.
“It is my belief
that war is not inevitable,” he stated. “Since our national government has
decided upon war, we have been forced to go to the grassroots level to stop the
proposed war on Iraq, since war is not the solution to the problem.”
Ed Rudin, the
author of the resolution, emphasized, “This is an issue of cost effectiveness.
War is not a cost effective way of stopping the conflict with Iraq. There are
alternatives to war.”
Retired
California National Guard tech sargent, Denise Christine, said, “we will push
the issue at every level because I believe that a war of aggression is not in
keeping with what our government should be about.”
Heather Fargo
said that Council would take the resolution under advisement for the following
council meeting, but since it wasn’t officially put on the agenda, it couldn’t
be brought up that night.
Two Council
members spoke regarding the resolution, one against the resolution and the
other leaning towards it. Steve Cohn opposed this resolution because he felt
that foreign policy was out of the jurisdiction of the city council.
“I respect the
rights of citizens under the first amendment to express their views, but I don’t support bringing this resolution
before the City Council,” said opponent Steve Cohn. “As a council member, I
haven’t run my campaigns over my positions on foreign policy. If we support
this resolution, we will be going down a very slippery slope.”
But Councilman
Ray Ray Tretheway thought the resolution was quite appropriate, citing his
experience as a student in Santa Cruz during the Vietnam War.
“I was a veteran
going to school and attended the City Council meeting in which the City of
Santa Cruz was the first one in the country to pass a resolution calling for an
end to the Vietnam War. I’m very interested in using a resolution to send a
message to stop the beginning of the war.”
Frustrated by
the mad race for war by the Bush administration and the refusal of Congress to
stand up to the president, citizens from all over the U.S. are urging their
local city councils and boards of supervisors to pass anti-war resolutions.
Davis
City Council Member Ruth Amundsen was planning to introduce a resolution
opposing a "pre-emptive" war on Iraq at the Davis City Council
meeting at 7 pm on Wednesday, February 12. California cities and counties that
have already passed anti-war resolutions include Arcata, Berkeley, Mendocino
County, Oakland, San Fernando, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara,
Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz, Sebastopol, Topanga Canyon and West Hollywood.
Daniel Bacher is
an outdoor writer/alternative journalist/satirical songwriter from Sacramento
California. He is also a long-time peace, social justice and environmental
activist. Email: danielbacher@hotmail.com