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WHEREAS, the citizens of the City of Gary and their local elected officials have the constitutional right to petition the national government on this matter of grave concern to our city, the nation, and the world; and

WHEREAS, the residents of the City of Gary hold high the sanctity of human life; and

WHEREAS, the residents of the City of Gary believe that a democratic nation should neither be an aggressor nation nor pursue an unjust war; and

WHEREAS, the people of the City of Gary do not believe it is the right of one nation to dictate the choices of another nation, however heinous the leaders it chooses; and

WHEREAS, former United Nations weapons inspectors, other experts, and world leaders have testified that Iraq - unlike North Korea, India, Pakistan, or Israel - neither possesses nuclear weapons nor the capacity to produce them, and does not pose an imminent threat to the United States; and

WHEREAS, the actions of the Gulf War, the UN sanctions, and continued bombing of regions of Iraq have already resulted in the deaths of over 500,000 people, predominantly Iraqi women, children, and the elderly, yet have proven ineffective in accomplishing the removal of Saddam Hussein; and

WHEREAS, a new attach on Iraq will cause tens of hundreds of thousands more civilian casualties, as well as military casualties on both sides of the conflict; and

WHEREAS, the City of Gary's 18-25 year old population is likely to be a primary source of conscription and recruitment for military personnel to fight a war from which there is no just cause or result; and

WHEREAS, the cost to the nation, including the City of Gary, is estimated to be more than 200 billion dollars, thus depleting the reserves, harming the economy, and resulting in further neglect of education, health care, housing, and the infrastructure, as well as other services desperately in need of repair or reform; and

WHEREAS, no one to date has been able to articulate why war on Iraq is in the interest of American citizens; and

WHEREAS, a war with Iraq has been declared by nearly all U.S. religious leaders as unjust; and

WHEREAS, many national security experts, including the Director of the CIA, state that an attach on Iraq is more likely to result in the use of weapons of mass destruction than will a policy of containment; and

WHEREAS, the leaders of most Middle Eastern and Muslim nations warn that an attack on Iraq is likely to spur even more animosity toward the U.S. from Muslims around the world and fuel more Islamic radicalism directed against us; and

WHEREAS, Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network remain a serious threat to our nation that demands security attention; and

WHEREAS, United Nation's led inspections have been far more effective in eliminating weapons of mass destruction than have been all the bombing during the Gulf War; and

WHEREAS, a war with Iraq is unneeded, unjust, and poses a real threat to our nation and our democratic traditions and rights; and

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF GARY hereby voices our opposition to any preemptive strike or act of war contemplated by the President and the Congress of the United States, and resolves that no war against Iraq be undertaken at any time by the United States unless as a response to a direct military attack by Iraq.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the governing body reaffirms The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the principles of international law, and calls on the Bush administration and our representatives in Congress to provide leadership in encouraging peace, democracy, and respect for human rights in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.