HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0179.023 2002-2004 >::3i
for County Council, May 7, 2003 9 AM
in support of Bob Jacobson's no~war resolution S 6- e3
Cory Darden, PO Box 102G5, I-Iilo 9G721 mh a~interpac.net 968-$965
yVhy consider a no-war resolution? It's not a County issue, and,
besides, the ~var is over.
But it is a County issue. The war took money that would have gone to
1oca1 education, health care, trar~.sportation, job training, lousing, and
environrn.enta.l protection. It cut income from tourism, income taxes, and
transient accommod~~.tion taxes. It took police, fire, and health workers away
for military service.
And the war oY~ TV may be over, but the aftermath is just beginning.
(My comments-arc based on reraarks by Prof Rashid Khalidi of Yale
University. )
Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians are dead or injured. Tens of
thousands of adults end children have been traumatized. Buildings have
been bombed to rubble. Dospitals, universities; museums, and government
buildings have been'.ooted. Tl~e oldest knows copy of the Koran is gone.
(~f course, the oil wells are safe.)
All. this--for w:lxat? Iraq was not a threat. ~1Ve won in a matter of
weeks. Iraq never used the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that
were supposedly dangerous enough to justify war. (The chemical ~~~eapons,
by the way, z~~ere obd~i~aed with Delp from the U.S. in the 1980s.}
~7Ve have set a dangerous precedent: if you don't like the regime i.n
another country, just discard the United Nations and ~aak.e. a preemptive
strike.
We have alienated most of the world by our unjust attack. V`Jho will
help us now to figl~.t i:he real threats?
The occupation will probably have to last as long as we want the new
regime to last. Britai~A lead tc~°conquer Iraq three times, and still it never
willingly accepted British bases or British control of its oil.
The administration has grandiose plans to create a new international
order i.n the Middle Fast, do~-€~ir#ated by the U.S.
The history books tell us that two other republics once tried to have
empires abroad. C3nc was Athens. The other ;eras Rome. 4Jc s ,
.
Re#. T~
R~~a