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Today's Top News
US Mayors Step Into Iran Fray Calling for Diplomacy, Not War
Tensions around Iran have been heating up with President Bush's recent trip to Europe urging stronger sanctions and reports of major Israeli military exercises in June designed to prepare for a potential strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed El Baradei, concerned about the belligerent direction, warned on June 21 that an attack on Iran would "transform the Middle East region into a ball of fire."
U. S. mayors, feeling the disastrous effects of the war in Iraq on their city budgets and local military families, are speaking out to try to stop another disastrous war. Thanks to a grassroots campaign initiated by CODEPINK, Global Exchange and Cities for Peace, a group of mayors have signed on to a National Mayors Resolution for Diplomacy with Iran. So far, 32 mayors from Alexandria, VA to Wilmington, DE have signed on. The resolution urges the Bush Administration to pursue diplomatic engagement with Iran and calls on Congress to prohibit the use of funds to carry out any military action against Iran without Congressional authorization.
The resolution's initial sponsor was Mayor Bob Kiss of Burlington, Vermont. "Cities across the US are already paying a high price for war with thousands of servicemen and women killed and wounded and other resources diverted away from important national priorities like infrastructure, education, housing and human needs," said Mayor Kiss. "Our experience in Iraq makes it even more critical to pursue diplomacy with Iran—talks anytime, anywhere.''
Mayor Scott Brook of Coral Springs, FL agrees. "In Iraq we're spending $10 billion a month while people here are losing their homes and can't get jobs. Where are our priorities? We can't afford more interventions."
Another early cosponsor of the resolution, Mayor Dan Coody from Fayetteville, Arkansas, does not want the public to be fooled again. "The Bush administration is playing the American people on Iran just like they did in Iraq," Mayor Coody said. "With Iraq going so badly and the economy in shambles, it would be crazy to wage a new war in another Middle Eastern country."
The mayors brought the resolution to the U.S. Conference of Mayors that was held in Miami from June 20-23. Unfortunately, it was tabled for another year when a small group of mayors voiced opposition. Some said it sounded disrespectful to the troops, others said it was just too controversial and they did not want to see a rerun of the divisive debate the year before when a resolution against the war in Iraq was put forth.
Undeterred, the mayors and their supporters used the Conference to gather more support and vowed to continue the campaign. The goal is to get 100 mayors from across the country on board, and then, in September, descend on Washington DC to deliver the resolution to Congress and the White House.
Local peace groups are excited about pushing their own mayors to take a stand. "The prospect of aggression against Iran is really troubling and it's frustrating have we have so few avenues to try to forestall that," said Nina Utne, a CODEPINK cofounder who was successful in pressuring her Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak to sign on. "I'm grateful that mayors are responding to their constituents and are willing to take a position of conscience."
"The public has shown itself wiser and more prudent than the Bush administration in matters of foreign policy and are claiming their civic right to weigh in through locally-elected officials," said Karen Dolan, director of the Cities for Peace project based at the Washington DC-based Institute for Policy Studies. "With the signatures of a growing number of mayors against a military strike on Iran, we see an encouraging continuation of local lawmakers and citizens speaking out in national venues regarding international policy."
Global Exchange, a group that organizes regular citizen delegations to Iran, is mobilizing its members. "People return from Iran in love with the Iranian people and energized to stop a war," said Sanaz Meshkinpour of Global Exchange. "We urge them to contact their congressional representatives, but also their local mayor. If we build a groundswell of support for diplomacy, we will hopefully force the decision-makers in Washington to listen."
You can join the campaign by asking your mayor to sign on. To see the full resolution, a sample letter to your mayor and your mayor's contact information, go here.
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19 Comments so far
Show AllYeah, good luck with that, folks. As mayors, you don't count for shit with multinational corporations who stand to make even more profit from an expanded war or with the Israeli lobby who wants to rid itself of what it perceives to be an enemy with US resources and blood.
Got to respect your good intentions, though. G-d bless you.
jj
Mayor Coody said. "With Iraq going so badly and the economy in shambles, it would be crazy to wage a new war in another Arab country."
HELLOOOOOO Iran is not an Arab Country. Iranians are Persian they speak Farsi not Arabic. UGHHH Why is it so few Americans bother to learn this.
"Tensions around Iran have been heating up with President Bush's recent trip.."
Makes good copy.
Its bad enough Coody doesn't understand Arab vs. Persian.
It is worse that he doesn't understand that the more wars that are in progress and the worse the US economy gets, the more money Bush/Cheney and their cronies make.
An Iran War will drive US fuel prices into the double digits, destroy the US economy, and exponentially increase the net worth of Bush/Cheney and cronies.
Like ants trying to stop an elephant....
Why aren't the Democrats using special orders to demand that Bush honor the Congress right to declare war?
Why aren't the Democrats on every TV show warning Bush not to attack Iran?
Why aren't the Democrats on the Capitol steps warning Bush not to attack Iran?
This news is *good news*.
~~ (and thanks a lot, Codepink!)
They'd better hurry - only 50 days until August 15th.
At this point, I'm not going to dump on anyone's efforts to avert another major disaster, no matter how futile that attempt may seem. What they are doing certainly can't hurt, and probably beats blogging about it.
When are these troops going to say "hell no we won't go". The government is spineless.
This one issue is the most important one to me. A Big thankyou to all
the Mayors involved in this. Please give them your support if you live
in their area.
Israel pulls all the strings on our politicians and our media. How
ridiculous then that we cant even TALK to Iran! If you cant talk, then
of course we cant even get at the other side of the story, and their
cannot be peace. I see no real reason why Iran could not be our close
friend and ally, if not for Israeli manipulation.
Remember that Iran was once a western style democracy. We (our CIA)
overthrew their government and installed the Shah. It took the 30 years
to throw out this vicious and repulsive US puppet.
Perhaps the Iranians made a diplomatic mistake when they held the US
embassy hostage in an attempt to get the US to hand over their former
puppet, the Shah for trial in Iran. But with an examination
of the Shah's tyrannical rule, you will see why they did it.
That was 30 years ago, and perhaps they are paying for the mistake even
now.
The Iranian democracy is flawed, in that the "church" must approve any
candidate for presidential election. But that still leaves Iran as the
most democratic country in the middle east. I would not refer to the
Iraq as a democracy, because that government can only do as it is told
by the US. I would not refer to Israel as a democracy but an apartheid,
because the Palestinians are the majority, and they cannot vote. Bear
in mind that our democracy is also flawed because no candidate who does
not get the approval of the very rich and also the approval of AIPAC
cannot get elected. The very rich and AIPAC both have agendas which are
different from the people.
Aside from holding US hostages for the return of the Shah. the foreign
policy of Iran has always been a peaceful one. They have never
attacked, nor threatened to attack any country. The only defended
against Saddam Hussein who attacked with US encouragement and US
supplied weapons including US supplied chemical weapons.
Now they are under threat from the US and from Israel. Who knows what
devastation and destruction could be unleashed on them.
Like Steve Martin said in the movie-The Jerk.
"So it's a profit deal! (Concerning war)
braithwa42 is so right. "Remember that Iran was once a western style democracy. We(our CIA} overthrew their gov't & installed the frickin' Shah. It took 30 frickin' fearsfor the iranians to overthrow this vicious & repulsive gov't"
And, then, we sicked the IraQ dictatorship upon them, chemical weapons and all, only to introduce crack into south central LA to raise $ to give to Contras & to send weapons to (who?) or, yeah, Iran.
This is IMPORTANT: Please contact your Reps. & Senators to oppose Resolution 362! This is sponsored by Voters for Peace;
Oppose Resolution 362
The resolution's key section "demands that the president initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran's nuclear program."
This resolution essentially calls for an act of war – a naval blockade of Iran. If passed by the Congress and Bush does what is asked it ensures war with Iran. Iran is three times the size of Iraq. If you think the Iraq war and occupation have been bad, wait till you see what war with Iran brings.
Write Representatives;
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1312/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25060
Write Senators;
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1312/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25062
Please copy & paste. If we flood their inboxes, maybe we can prevent THIS war!
Bush is not the only government criminal, violating federal laws and treaties. Over 4000 American soldiers dead and most likely a million Iraqi civilians including perhaps half of whom were children under 15.
Who killed them...directly and indirectly US soldiers and pilots who were sent there by George Bush.
Could George just "send" them? No of course not. Bush could not get the army to Iraq with out help.
Without the support of congress and the supreme court, the armed forces would not have gone to Iraq or even if ordered by Bush, could have been recalled by congress or even the supreme court. Bush, 535 members of congress and 9 members of the Supreme Court comprise the US government leadership. Not all, but most of these US government leaders brought death and destruction to Iraq.
One million dead, millions maimed, millions homeless as a direct result of the actions and in action of the 545 leaders.
Today, a New York State mother was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for not preventing her boyfriend from abusing her infant son to death. Just to be clear, she was not accused of harming her child but of not protecting him from harm.
What is the appropriate penalty for permitting Bush to kill 1 million Iraqi, including 500,000 Iraqi children and sending over 4000 US soldiers to their deaths, simply because he insisted upon war?
Vincent Bugliosi, the American attorney best known for prosecuting Charlie Manson,has written The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, arguing that Bush should be charged with murder and prosecuted.
Former assistant US Attorney, Elizabeth de la Vega has written a book United States v. George W. Bush et al charging George Bush with criminal fraud.
Sure, no deputy is going to try to arrest George Bush, but what of the small fry, the lesser names who make the Bush war possible.
So, who will write the charges against the other individuals who helped plan and carry out the crimes charged above? Is there a jurisdiction which will issue arrest warrants?
Ms. de la Vega, Mr Bagliosi, you have done the ground work, how about lighting a fire under the Bush enablers?
It still amazes me, how most Americans (not all), still see the Iraq war as a mistake (not an illegal act), because of the numbers of US/UK troops being killed, or because of the effect on the economy.
A minority like Ambergris, point out the real horrors, and the cost of human suffering in a country which never attacked us.
We have to tell as many people as possible, about the truth behind this push for war. We have to outline the real facts about Iran, and our history in the region, just give them the facts, like braithwa842 has done.
All of our best "intelligence" and the IEAE would seem to say that there is no proof of an Iranian nuclear weapons programme. This constant threatening of Iran by the US/Israel is an act of terror in itself. All of the UN sanctions brought against Iran, are in my opinion illegal, because Iran have broken no laws under the NPT, and the reasons for the sanctions are based on hypothetical scenarios in five or ten years time.
If we continue to go down the route of pre emptive strikes, or wars based on regime change, then it is only a matter of time, before China, Russia or someone else decides that we are a threat, and decides to attack us first.
We have to stop this runaway train before it crashes and takes us all with it.
At least some people coming to their senses.
I doubt if Bloomberg of NY will join the movement for sanity. Despite all kinds of cuts in education he is a big promoter of spending hundreds of millions of public money on professional sports stadiums and remains silent on war spending. He does not make any connections between the NYC tax dollars being bled out for war and the local shortages.
MESSAGE AHMADINEJAD AND ASK HIM IF IRAN'S PEACE OFFER FROM 2003 AND THEIR SUPPORT FOR FISSBAN STILL STANDS!!!
http://zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/18029