Baltimore, MD Calling for a National Withdrawal from Iraq
Type: Resolution
Status: Adopted on 11/21/05
Text:
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL 05-0110R
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION CONCERNING
- “Homeward Bound” - A Local Call for a National Withdrawal from Iraq FOR the purpose of urging President Bush and the United States Congress to commence a humane, orderly, immediate, and comprehensive withdrawal of United States military personnel and bases from Iraq.
Recitals
On June 16, a bi-partisan group of Democrats and Republicans introduced into the Congress of the United States the Homeward Bound Act of 2005, which calls upon the President and the Congress of the United States to put in place and in motion a plan for the strategic exit from Iraq of the United States military.
In like fashion, Wisconsin’s Senator Russ Feingold, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has proposed a timeframe for the completion of our nation’s military mission in Iraq, suggesting December 31, 2006, as the target date for completion of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
The United States of America went to war against Iraq based on claims, at the highest level of our government, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction which posed an immediate threat to the security of the United States of America.
To date, after extensive investigation “on the ground” in Iraq, no evidence has emerged to substantiate the claim that Iraq possessed such weapons or the capability to deploy them.
The United States is not and has not ever been at risk from imminent Iraqi attack as was claimed.
According to our own Department of Defense, the war and military occupation of Iraq have tragically cost the lives of more than 2,000 United States soldiers and the wounding and disabling of 15,000 additional soldiers. The war and occupation have also tragically cost an estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, including so many innocent men, women and children who simply found themselves “in the wrong place at the wrong time” in this ill-conceived conflict.
The Baltimore City Council salutes the courage and commitment of the more than 1 million U.S. military personnel, including our own Baltimore neighbors, friends, and relatives, who have served in the war and occupation in Iraq, responding as they have to the Presidential call to protect out very security, a call now in tragic question.
These men and women of the United States military, including our own Maryland National Guardsmen and women, our neighbors and friends, have suffered extraordinary danger and the loneliness of long separations from home and family on our behalf and the nation’s.
Now, we ask that these valiant warriors be returned home, safe and intact, to resume their lives, with our thanks for their sacrifices on our behalf and for the courage of their families who have waited and watched from home.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That Baltimore City issues a local call for a national withdrawal from Iraq and urges the President and the United States Congress to commence a humane, orderly, immediate, and comprehensive withdrawal of United States military personnel and bases from Iraq.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, the Governor of Maryland is likewise called upon to withdraw all National Guard Personnel in a like fashion;
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the President of the United States, our Maryland Delegation to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Governor of Maryland, the Mayor of Baltimore City, and the Mayor’s Legislative Liaison to the Council.