Katrina vanden Heuvel: Acting Locally (The Nation)

It's a frustrating time for those Americans who are fighting to end this war. There is gridlock in Washington. This White House continues to hang on to the argument that the US must stay in Iraq -- possibly for decades. And the new Democratic-controlled Congress--working with razor-thin majorities--couldn't stop a supplemental that gave Bush 100 billion dollars more for the war.

This in spite of the fact that the country, the troops, the Iraqi people and Iraqi lawmakers oppose the open-ended continuation of this war.

But citizens across the country have continued to demonstrate their opposition to this disastrous war through local channels. In California, as Nation contributing editor Marc Cooper, recently noted, a resolution to place a referendum on troop withdrawal on the February 5 primary ballot was passed by a wide margin by the state senate.

"That war is costing California dearly," said Senate President Pro Tem Tom Perata. "We have contributed the lives and blood of more than 340 Californians. Not a week goes by on this (Senate) floor when a member, Republican or Democrat, stands up to memorialize a fallen soldier, sometimes as young as 18 years old." And California is not alone. Every state is reeling from the lost lives and the wasted funds of this costly and bloody war. The National Priorities Project performs an important service--rigorously documenting how local communities are bearing the burden of this misadventure. For example, with the amount of money that the citizens of Alabama have spent on the war, they could have provided health insurance to 4,377,655 children.

Similar actions are being taken all over the US, where states, towns and cities are pushing and passing resolutions that call for an end to the War in Iraq. California is one of five States that have "peace resolutions." The others are Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont. There is also a tremendous level of activity at the municipal level. According to Karen Dolan, executive director of Cities for Progress "256 city and towns who have either passed some kind of bring the troop home resolutions, or have been covered by state wide ballot initiatives that pass encompassing all of these cities and towns." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=209022