A RESOLUTION CALLING FOR A PROMPT AND RESPONSIBLE DISENGAGEMENT

OF THE UNITED STATES FROM IRAQ

WHEREAS, the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by the armed forces of the United States violated the Charter of the United Nations, and Article VI of the U.S.Constitution, and

WHEREAS, the orders and contracts of the Coalition Provisional Authority, still in force in Iraq in October 2005, violate the Iraq Constitution, the 1906 Hague Regulations, the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Army's Code of Land Warfare, and

WHEREAS, as of November 9, 2005, 45 citizens of Washington State (2,058 from across the US) have been killed, approximately 350 from Washington State (15,477 from across the US) have been wounded, and many more continue to be in jeopardy while serving in the armed forces of the United States in Iraq, and

WHEREAS, as of November 9, 2005, the estimated financial cost of the war to the citizens of Washington State is $5.179 billion, or approximately $825 for every man, woman, and child living in the city, monies that could otherwise have funded, for example, 8976 additional Washington public school teachers for a period of 10 years, or 46,600 additional housing units, or 251,000 four-year scholarships at public universities, and

WHEREAS, the citizens of Washington face ever increasing personal security risks at home and abroad as a result of this war and occupation, and

WHEREAS, the citizens of Washington will pay the additional costs of the physical, emotional, mental, relationship, and social impairments that war frequently bequeaths to veterans and their families, and

WHEREAS, the citizens of Washington recognize that costs of the war and occupation to the Iraqi people are immeasurably greater, and

WHEREAS, the citizens of Washington remember the prior US actions in Iraq include the Gulf War in which, in violation of international treaties on the conduct of war, the US deliberately crippled Iraq infrastructure (e.g., water treatment, sanitation and electrical plants), harshening life since throughout Iraq. In addition, in the following twelve years (1991 -2003), the US insisted, through the UN, on maintaining strict economic sanctions there; by 1999, UNICEF reported, economic sanctions had contributed to half a million Iraqi children's deaths. Additional reports on malnutrition, a savaged health care system, and lost education for a generation of children in Iraq from those pre-2003 actions are readily available.

WHEREAS, the environmental destruction visited on Iraq by the Gulf War and the current Iraq War and occupation include uninventoried radiological weapons debris and unexploded US cluster bombs, and

WHEREAS, the citizens of the United States have a moral and legal obligation to mend the material and other damage it has done there,


NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

Section 1. We affirm that the sovereignty of Iraq, both political and economic, belongs to the people of Iraq and     that sovereignty should be returned promptly and in full to them. To this end, the United States executive branch and Congress should:

a) declare immediately that it is the intent of the US to withdraw all US and other coalition armed forces and foreign private security forces from Iraq, and abandon all efforts to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq;

b) renounce immediately privatization acts and agreements, imposed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, that permit foreign business entities to control Iraqi resources and assets, and prepare to thwart present and future efforts by international financial institutions to impose other forms of economic control in Iraq;

c) return Iraqi assets, including palaces, other buildings, and monies in frozen financial accounts, to the people of Iraq, and forgive debt that was incurred by the former regime and financial penalties that were imposed by the UN
after the Gulf War.

d) begin immediately to recruit a UN sponsored mission to Iraq that would include: a peace keeping force drawn from neutral, non-neighboring countries to help maintain civil order during and immediately after US withdrawal; a technical team to support the restoration of basic services and help administer international reconstruction aid; and a policy team to advise on governance which is democratic, nonsectarian, and free of foreign influence.

Section 2: The citizens of Washington State encourage the US government to act immediately to reduce the level of chaos and death in Iraq:
 

a) by ceasing all offensive military operations;

b) by negotiating with representatives of the principal insurgent groups to understand and make public under         what conditions their attacks against Iraqis would cease;

c) by requesting a peace/disengagement conference organized by international third parties in a neutral country between the 'coalition' and major political factions in Iraq to work out the terms of disengagement,

d) by allowing the creation of a national Iraqi government independent of overt and covert US control;

Section 3: The citizens of Washington State aver that a military withdrawal from Iraq does not release the United States from moral, international law, or treaty obligations that link it to financially assisting in the reconstruction
of Iraq.

Obligations include the support for:

a) rebuilding of civilian infrastructure (e.g., water treatment, sanitation, and electrical plants) crippled by the US in two wars and twelve years of economic sanctions;


b) reconstruction of the health care and educational systems to pre-Gulf War conditions;

c) clean up of toxic and radioactive contamination by depleted uranium (DU) and destruction of unexploded cluster bombs and other ordnance of non-Iraqi military origin;

d) epidemiological and clinical research on the health and genetic effects of DU contamination on Iraqis and coalition soldiers;

e) efforts to restore cultural treasures lost during the first days of US occupation in 2003;

f) a policy of reconstruction engagement that benefits Iraqis, not foreign workers or corporations;

g) a policy that would provide safe-haven for Iraqis who may have been placed in harms way by cooperation with US entities in Iraq or by a perception of cooperation.

h) just as the US pressured the UN to impose astronomical war penalties on Iraq, the US must work to cancel these impositions immediately, and account for all Iraqi resources to be used in rebuilding the country.

Section 4: We encourage recurrent acts of peaceful political self-determination by the Iraqi people, but recognize that more specific US formulas for democracy in Iraq cannot ultimately be imposed.

Section 5: This resolution shall be forwarded to the President of the United States, to the Washington State delegation in Congress and to other national leaders, all of whom continue to make foreign policy with regard to Iraq and to fund an occupation that is ultimately detrimental to Iraqis, the citizens of the state of Washington.