My question to you, is how many children could have went to college for that amount of money?  How many neighborhoods could have been revitalized?  How many crimes could we have prevented from being committed?  Social programs are being cut at the federal level, so I must ask you, how much good could have come out of $335 million of your tax dollars?

Resolution 339 Committee Substitute

RESOLUTION URGING CESSATION OF COMBAT OPERATIONS IN IRAQ

AND THE RETURN OF U.S. TROOPS

WHEREAS, the authorization for the use of military force against Iraq, Resolution of 2002, was passed by the U.S. Congress on October 11, 2002, and that Public Law 107-243 cited Iraq’s possession of “weapons of mass destruction” as one of the primary reasons for the use of U.S. military power against Iraq; and

            WHEREAS, the United States initiated combat operations in Iraq on March 19, 2003 in part to find the reported weapons of mass destruction and since no weapons of mass destruction were found, President Bush officially declared an end to the search for these weapons in Iraq on January 12, 2005; and

WHEREAS, hundreds of thousands of members of the United States Armed Forces have served with honor and distinction in Iraq with more than 4,000 of them having been killed and more than 60,000 of them having been wounded in substantially accomplishing the stated purpose of the United States for entering Iraq, clearly determining that Iraq is free of any supposed arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and toppling the government of Saddam Hussein; and

WHEREAS, the United States military occupation of Iraq has placed significant strains on the capacity of the United States Armed Forces including the National Guard, both active duty and reserve; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. State Department noted that the Iraqi Security Forces number more than 355,000 troops as of January 2008 and are growing in number and capability daily; and

WHEREAS, nearly $500 billion has been appropriated by Congress to fund military operations and reconstruction in Iraq, with Missouri residents’ share now exceeding estimates of  $7.5 billion and St. Louis' residents share now exceeding $335 million as calculated by the National Priorities Project; and

WHEREAS, in February 2007 congressional hearings determined that nearly $10 billion of the monies expended on the war effort in Iraq have been “mismanaged and wasted”; and

WHEREAS, $4.6 billion in tax dollars paid to the Halliburton Corporation and the former Halliburton division, KBR, were deemed “unreasonable and unsupportable” by Pentagon auditors and according to the Brookings Institute Iraq Index, hundreds of millions of tax payers monies have disappeared due to military equipment being “lost and unaccounted for”; and

WHEREAS, the funds spent by St. Louis taxpayers on the war and occupation in Iraq could have provided Head Start for one year for 45,562 children; or medical insurance for one year for 33,429 children; or 1,996 public school teachers for one year; or 939 affordable housing units, according to the National Priorities Project; and

WHEREAS, the war and continued occupation of Iraq has resulted in the devastation of Iraq’s physical and social infrastructure and led to widespread and continuous resistance to U.S. occupation that threatens the lives of Iraqi civilians and the men and women who compose the ranks of U.S. Armed forces; and

WHEREAS, the presence of United States forces in Iraq and the alleged torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and other facilities have inflamed anti-American passions in significant portions of the Muslim world and increased the terrorist threat to United States citizens, both at home and abroad; and

WHEREAS, the continued US occupation of Iraq has precipitated the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world displacing nearly one fifth of that country's population either internally or externally, in addition to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians according to studies by the British medical journal, The Lancet and the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health; and

WHEREAS, such destabilization and destruction is fueling instability in the surrounding region which threatens the security of all Americans with various U.S. polls, including media tabulations, showing that less than half of the American people support the war.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the St. Louis City Board of Aldermen urges the United States Congress and the President to immediately commence an orderly and rapid withdrawal of United States military personnel from Iraq, while assisting the Iraqi people to rebuild and reconstruct and that the financial resources used for the war be redirected to address the urgent needs of America’s great cities, the most vulnerable portions of the U.S. population and to address urgent domestic health, housing and education crises that America faces and further directs the Clerk of this Board to prepare a fitting copy of this resolution so that in the end it may be presented to those deemed appropriate by its sponsor.

Introduced on the 22^nd day of February, 2008 by:

Honorable Terry Kennedy, Alderman 18th Ward

Honorable Kacie Starr Triplett, Alderwoman 6^th Ward

Honorable Marlene Davis, Alderwoman 19^th Ward

Adopted this the 22^nd day of February, 2008 as attested by:

_______________________                                               __________________________

     David W. Sweeney                                                                          Lewis E. Reed

  Clerk, Board of Aldermen                                                       President, Board of Aldermen