Midwest City Fights Back Against Iran War-Mongering

[babylonsister]

The little city that could! :applause:

Midwest City Fights Back Against Iran War-Mongering

By Erik Leaver, AlterNet. Posted December 14, 2007.

Congress may buy into unchecked aggression, but not the city of Gary, Indiana.


When the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran was released noting that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons program in 2003, the council moved into action. Unanimously, it passed a resolution ensuring that no preemptive military attack by the United States against Iran takes place.

Surprised you didn't hear about this courageous act? That's because it happened in the town of Gary, Ind., not in our nation's capitol.

Organized by the Northwest Indiana Coalition Against the Iraq War and introduced by Councilman Charles Hughes, the City of Gary has passed the most common-sense strategy to deal with Iran. The resolution called for Congress to:

1. Ensure that no preemptive military attack by the United States against Iran takes place.

2. Make clear to the administration that such a preemptive attack has not been authorized by any law, resolution, court ruling or article of the Constitution.

3. Support diplomatic engagement with Iran.

4. Maintain pressure against all escalations of war in the Middle East.

Free of the widely held belief by Washington insiders that demand our president and Congress look tough on defense at all costs, the council members in Gary were able to objectively look at the facts. While Bush has warned of the prospect of "World War III," the council recognized what the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) found: that Iran is at least three to eight years away, in a best-case scenario, from acquiring the technical know-how to create a nuclear weapon. Though nobody wants to see another nation in the Middle East acquire a nuclear weapon, this timeframe indicates that time is on our side for diplomacy to work. No rationale exists for a preemptive attack to take place.

The council also recognized the importance of engaging the international community and moving away from Bush's go-it-alone foreign policy. Iran stopped its weapons program precisely at the time the international inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began their in-depth investigations. The work of the IAEA in places like Iraq and now in Iran has been effective in stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

more...

http://alternet.org/story/70329/

[HCE SuiGeneris]

1. We have a model to follow.

Well done Gary, Indiana and fellow citizens!

[babylonsister]

2. It's a very good start! nt

[FunkyLeprechaun]

3. Wasn't Gary in Money Magazine's last place in 1994?

Just wondering that's all

[babylonsister]

4. Who cares? They know what's right. I wish more cities did. nt

[kas125]

5. I wouldn't doubt at all if they were

now that the steel mills are hardly running, there isn't much industry around here. But that's my hometown and it's my friend Tony who is responsible for this getting done. This area may be depressed economically, but as is obvious from this article, we still have a conscience. Gary was also one of the first, if not THE first, cities to pass a resolution against the Iraq war. Seems to me that if we can do that stuff here, more people should be able to get things like this accomplished where they live, too.

[OzarkDem]

6. Steel town, all jobs shipped overseas

They don't take kindly to GOP assholes who are destroying their city, their jobs and our country.

Good on 'em.

On edit:

Welcome to DU :eyes: How much do you guys get paid, anyway? Is it more than minimum wage?