- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some
90 U.S. city councils have passed resolutions opposing military actions
against Iraq, with many arguing that such a war would devastate their economies,
organizers of the campaign said on Thursday.
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- Representatives of many of these cities, which include
Chicago and Philadelphia among others, gathered in Washington to deliver
their resolutions to the White House.
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- "War will be financed by deficit spending and drastic
cuts in domestic spending. The sons and daughters of American cities will
be recruited to fight and even die in that war," Chicago alderman
Joe Moore said.
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- The city representatives told a news conference that
resources in their jurisdictions were already severely stretched and the
country could not afford a war.
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- "In my city, our homeless shelters are jammed. In
fact we are turning people away nightly," said Detroit councilwoman
Maryann Mahaffey.
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- The campaign to pass city resolutions is organized by
the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think-tank and political action
group. Its organizer, Karen Dolan, said anti-war resolutions were pending
in 100 more towns and cities.
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- Anti-war activists are organizing major rallies in New
York and San Francisco this weekend which are expected to draw hundreds
of thousands of people. Several hundred thousand attended a rally in Washington
DC two weeks ago.
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- Although the threat of war has spawned a large and vociferous
peace movement, polls show support for a war has grown in the past week,
since Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the United Nations what
he said was evidence that the Iraqi military was conspiring to conceal
weapons of mass destruction from U.N. arms inspectors.
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- A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll this week found 63 percent
expressing support for a war with 34 percent opposed. If the war was not
authorized by the U.N. Security Council, support fell to 39 percent, with
57 percent opposed without a new U.N. vote to give a green light.
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- CITIES LARGE AND SMALL
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- Cities that have passed anti-war resolutions include
major urban centers like Baltimore and Atlanta, as well as university towns
like Austin, Texas, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Berkeley, California, well
known as liberal enclaves.
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- They are concentrated on the East and West coasts and
in the upper Midwest, mainly in states that did not support President Bush
in the 2000 presidential election.
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- Some cities have also rejected anti-war resolutions,
arguing that city councils have no business meddling in foreign policy.
A resolution failed by 6 to 1 this week in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Minneapolis
and Portland, Oregon also refused to go along with resolutions.
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- Chicago's Moore said the resolution in his city passed
by 46 to 1. "Few decisions will have a more profound effect on the
quality of life in our cities than the decision to go to war," he
said.
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- Councilman Don Cooney of Kalamazoo, Michigan, said 2,000
families in his town were displaying anti-war yard signs.
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- Serena Cruz, commissioner of Multnomah County, Oregon
said: "A preemptive war on Iraq will not make us any safer. Anything
that undermines the United Nations makes the world a more dangerous place.
We have not yet seen compelling reasons for entering this war but we see
compelling needs every day in our cities that go unmet."
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