Cities for Peace

Cities for Peace Reading Room

Links to published articles that examine issues relevant to cities for peace campaigns, or cover the cities for peace effort in general.

More links to articles on war topics at www.ips-dc.org and www.fpif.org

See the Shape the Debate Factsheets for information on issues facing U.S. communities.

January 19, 2005 -- "Does the Occupation Prevent Civil War in Iraq? Think Again" by Gareth Porter of Foreign Policy in Focus.

January 14, 2005 -- "Slowing the Military Spending Surge" by Miriam Pemberton in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Janurary 13, 2005 -- "Rethinking 'Rethinking Iraq'" by Erik Leaver of Foreign Policy in Focus.

January 12, 2005 -- "Ending the U.S. War in Iraq: Ending the War and Internationalizing the Peace" by Phyllis Bennis and Erik Leaver.

December 19, 2004 -- See the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program for a weekly update on the major economic and political issues affecting our nation's cities

December 17, 2004 -- Find up to date information on Bush's tax policy and deficit plans at www.fairtaxes4all.org

December 14, 2004 -- Federal budget update from OMB Watch.

December 10, 2004 -- Spc. Robert Loria is Stuck in Fort Hood, TX. He lost an arm in Iraq, had no money for gas to drive home from Walter Reed army hospital, and is now being told he owes the army $2,000. This article represents the continually broadening soldier dissatisfaction with an administration that has led them into a quaqmire and deprived them of the honesty and support they need.

September 30, 2004 -- IPS's "A Failed 'Transition': The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War" is the most comprehensive accounting of the mounting costs of the Iraq War on the U.S., Iraq, and the world. Among the shocking figures in the report is the drastic escalation of military and civilian casualties since the so-called "transition" to Iraqi rule, an occasion that the Bush administration had promised would bring peace and democracy.

September 2004 -- Rep. Henry A. Waxman has released a comprehensive examination of secrecy in the Bush Administration. The report analyzes the status of open government laws, including the undermining of public access to information and the expanding of government authority to act in secret.

May 2004 --Veterans Benefits Under-funded from the National Priorities Project

May 2004 -- Cost to Taxpayers of New $25 Billion War Request from Cities for Peace partner the National Priorities Project.

May 6, 2004 -- How to Get Out of Iraq: A Forum, presented by The Nation, features IPS's Phyllis Bennis, as well as Noam Chomsky, John Brady Kiesling, Howard Zinn and William R.Polk.

May 5, 2004 -- Talking Points on The Torture Photographs by Phyllis Bennis

April 27, 2004-- Bush Wages Domestic War of Mass Deception: Social Programs Gutted by Karen Dolan in War Times

April 14, 2004 -- Iraq President Bush on the Defensive and UN Plans for Creating Interim Authority by Phyllis Bennis. President Bush's press conference yesterday offered no indication of a change in strategy despite the escalating violence and the increasingly hard-to-disguise failures of the Bush policies. The Bush administration is clearly on the defensive.

April 12, 2004 -- The Vulnerabilities of the Bush Iraq Policies by Phyllis Bennis. Almost one year from President Bush's announcement of the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq, the U.S. drive towards empire faces new and serious challenges.

April 7, 2004 -- Student Activism in Focus offers a Foreign Policy Issue Guide. Ask the questions in this guide at events in your area and make candidates take a public stance on these issues. Use this information as a resource for hosting your own debates, teach-ins, and panels. Hand out the enclosed flyers to students on your campus.

March 22, 2004 -- Report from a Rainbow-Covered Rome Phyllis Bennis reports from the March 20 Italian peace march.

March 21, 2004 -- Profiting from the war
by Jim Vallette of SEEN in the Bangor Daily News

March 16, 2004 -- Talking Points: The Iraqi Constitution & Events in Spain by Phyllis Bennis

March 12, 2004 -- Impeachment and the Imperial President by Marcus Raskin When should a president and officers of his government be impeached? When should Congress move to initiate impeachment proceedings against a sitting president? This question is raised more times than it is answered.

March 1, 2004 -- New Report: Over-Emphasis on Military Spending Short-Changes National Security
Defense/National Security Experts Call for Unified National Security Budget, from Foreign Policy In Focus

May 2003 -- The latest War Times features two articles by IPS Fellows: Military Budget Soars by Miriam Pemberton and The Costs of War Hit Home by Karen Dolan.

April 11, 2003 -- Talking points as the statues fall by Phyllis Bennis

Cities for Peace Issues and Campaigns

March 13, 2003 -- Building Cities for Peace by John Nichols in The Nation

March 9, 2003 -- Resolved: War Is Hell, and So Is Fine Print for the City Council by Nichole M. Christian in the New York Times (free registration required to view)

March 2, 2003 --- War Is L.A. City Council's Business: Grass-roots democracy has an honored place in U.S. history by Ralph E. Shaffer and Walter P. Coombs in the Los Angeles Times

"Supporters of the president's desire for a "go it alone if necessary" war argued on conservative talk shows and in editorials that a city council has no business voting on foreign policy or any other topic that is outside the scope of local government. . .

But they are wrong. The antiwar champions are inheritors of a U.S. protest movement that stretches back to the 1760s and 1770s. "

February 28, 2003 -- Officials fear war abroad will breed terror at home by Siobhan Gorman and Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., in Government Executive Magazine

February 27, 2003 -- Bush Offensive Stalls at City Gates: Why U.S. cities are going anti-war; how L.A. joined them by Harold Meyerson in the L.A. Weekly

February 26, 2003 --US cities opposed to war with Iraq Sify News -- India

February 23, 2003 -- Legislators acted because administration is going too far by Ethan Strimling from Portland (ME) Press Herald.

"Workers in Millinocket face a more immediate threat to their livelihood than Saddam Hussein: They need their mill re-opened. Our dairy farms are disappearing, taking generations of farmers with them. Our small businesses need affordable health care so they remain prosperous and employ more workers."

February 19, 2003 -- Reserve Call-Up Drains Nation's First Responders at FoxNews.com

February 10, 2003 -- Religious groups in area mixed on Iraq war in the Gainesville Sun (Florida)

February 09, 2003 -- Activists press for anti-war declaration in the Park Record (Park City/Summit County, Utah)

February 1, 2003 -- Both the New York Times and the Washington Post covered city and county council resolutions against the war. (Free registration required to see the New York Times story)

Citizen Soldiers Leave Big Gaps on Home Front, By Dean E. Murphy in the February 1, 2003, New York Times (Free registration required)

"All across the United States, the call-up of reservists and National Guard members is carving big holes in the towns and cities they leave behind. The heartache of families separating, a familiar ritual of military service, is being compounded by the community upheaval associated with a second major mobilization of citizen soldiers in as many years.

Doctors. Nurses. Police officers. Firefighters. Lawyers. Teachers. Clerks. Cashiers. Mechanics. Truck drivers. Even mayors and school board members. All going or gone."

Coverage of February 13 Press Conference and Congressional Hearing (click here for pictures and audio)

Cities for Peace brings an anti-war message to capital, Washington Times, DC

City Leaders Carry Message Against War To President, New York Times

State and Local Governments Join Anti-War Voices, Washington Post

Dozens of local officials protest war plans, Newsday

Municipal officials march against war, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Some state lawmakers urge diplomacy, not war, CNN

Ithacans vote heard in DC, Ithaca Journal, NY

State Lawmakers Jump Into Foreign Policy, ABC News

(This Associated Press story also carried online by Austin American Statesman, TX, News Journal, Longview TX, Guardian, UK, Wilkes Barre Weekender, PA, Akron Beacon Journal, OH, Macon Telegraph, GA, Kansas City Star, MO, Biloxi Sun Herald, MS, Tuscaloosa News, AL, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA, Times Daily, AL, Aberdeen American News, SD, Belleville News-Democrat, IL, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN, Centre Daily Times, PA, Duluth News Tribune, MN, Grand Forks Herald, ND, Walnut Creek Journal, CA, Wichita Eagle, KS)

Antiwar protesters gear up across the country, The Globe and Mail, Canada

The Economy

March 19, 2003 -- We Have a Winner in Iraq. Corporate America by Arianna Huffington at CommonDreams.org

March 7, 2003 -- In Talk of War, Cost Is Avoided: Cost Estimates Vary, but Administration Saying Little by Terry M. Neal in the Washington Post

Voodoo Economics, the Next Generation: George II Plans A War by Miriam Pemberton for the January 29, 2003 Tom Paine.com

War 'would mean biggest oil shock ever' by Faisal Islam, economics correspondent, in the February 2, 2003 issue of The Observer (UK)

"The world will suffer a bigger oil crisis than that during the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1973 if the US declares war on Iraq, according to leading US investment bank Goldman Sachs."

Other Analyses and Issues

The president's real goal in Iraq for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

February 06, 2003 -- War against Iraq: questions and answers by Joshua Burek, Ben Arnoldy, and Jim Bencivenga at csmonitor.com

"The Monitor takes some of the questions we hear most frequently about whether to invade Iraq, and we summarize — without fear or favor — the major pro and con answers to each of them"

Powell Fails to Make Case by Katrina vanden Heuvel, February 6, 2002 for The Nation.com

Representative Bernie Sanders, John Conyers and 38 Other Members of Congress Request Meeting with President Bush to Discuss Potential War with Iraq, Press Release/Letter, January 31, 2003

Split at C.I.A. and F.B.I. on Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda, in the February 1, 2003, New York Times (Free registration required)

Keeping Saddam Hussein in a Box by John J. Mearshimer and Stephen M. Walt in the February 1, 2003, New York Times (Free registration required)

"The United States faces a clear choice on Iraq: containment or preventive war. President Bush insists that containment has failed and we must prepare for war. In fact, war is not necessary. Containment has worked in the past and can work in the future, even when dealing with Saddam Hussein."

A War Crime or an Act of War? by Stephen C. Pelletiere in the January 31, 2003, New York Times (Free registration required)

"The accusation that Iraq has used chemical weapons against its citizens is a familiar part of the debate. The piece of hard evidence most frequently brought up concerns the gassing of Iraqi Kurds at the town of Halabja in March 1988, near the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. President Bush himself has cited Iraq's "gassing its own people," specifically at Halabja, as a reason to topple Saddam Hussein.

But the truth is, all we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the Halabja story."

A General's Doubts by David Ignatius in January 31, 2003, Washington Post

"As the countdown continues toward war against Iraq, it's worth listening one last time to the arguments against that conflict, as laid out this week by one of America's most distinguished retired generals, Wesley K. Clark."

The double standards, dubious morality and duplicity of this fight against terror by Robert Fisk for the January 4, 2003, Independent (UK)

"Meanwhile, we are ploughing on to war in Iraq, which has oil, but avoiding war in Korea, which does not have oil"

Morally Unserious by Michael Kinsley from the January 31, 2003, Washington Post

		We are building a coaltion of local officials and concerned citizens to express the will of our communities through civic resolutions regarding the war in Iraq


Return to Main Page	Cities for Peace Reading Room Links to published articles that examine issues relevant to cities for peace campaigns, or cover the cities for peace effort in general. More links to articles on war topics at www.ips-dc.org and www.fpif.org See the Shape the Debate Factsheets for information on issues facing U.S. communities. January 19, 2005 -- "Does the Occupation Prevent Civil War in Iraq? Think Again" by Gareth Porter of Foreign Policy in Focus. January 14, 2005 -- "Slowing the Military Spending Surge" by Miriam Pemberton in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Janurary 13, 2005 -- "Rethinking 'Rethinking Iraq'" by Erik Leaver of Foreign Policy in Focus. January 12, 2005 -- "Ending the U.S. War in Iraq: Ending the War and Internationalizing the Peace" by Phyllis Bennis and Erik Leaver. December 19, 2004 -- See the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program for a weekly update on the major economic and political issues affecting our nation's cities December 17, 2004 -- Find up to date information on Bush's tax policy and deficit plans at www.fairtaxes4all.org December 14, 2004 -- Federal budget update from OMB Watch. December 10, 2004 -- Spc. Robert Loria is Stuck in Fort Hood, TX. He lost an arm in Iraq, had no money for gas to drive home from Walter Reed army hospital, and is now being told he owes the army $2,000. This article represents the continually broadening soldier dissatisfaction with an administration that has led them into a quaqmire and deprived them of the honesty and support they need. September 30, 2004 -- IPS's "A Failed 'Transition': The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War" is the most comprehensive accounting of the mounting costs of the Iraq War on the U.S., Iraq, and the world. Among the shocking figures in the report is the drastic escalation of military and civilian casualties since the so-called "transition" to Iraqi rule, an occasion that the Bush administration had promised would bring peace and democracy. September 2004 -- Rep. Henry A. Waxman has released a comprehensive examination of secrecy in the Bush Administration. The report analyzes the status of open government laws, including the undermining of public access to information and the expanding of government authority to act in secret. May 2004 --Veterans Benefits Under-funded from the National Priorities Project May 2004 -- Cost to Taxpayers of New $25 Billion War Request from Cities for Peace partner the National Priorities Project. May 6, 2004 -- How to Get Out of Iraq: A Forum, presented by The Nation, features IPS's Phyllis Bennis, as well as Noam Chomsky, John Brady Kiesling, Howard Zinn and William R.Polk. May 5, 2004 -- Talking Points on The Torture Photographs by Phyllis Bennis April 27, 2004-- Bush Wages Domestic War of Mass Deception: Social Programs Gutted by Karen Dolan in War Times April 14, 2004 -- Iraq President Bush on the Defensive and UN Plans for Creating Interim Authority by Phyllis Bennis. President Bush's press conference yesterday offered no indication of a change in strategy despite the escalating violence and the increasingly hard-to-disguise failures of the Bush policies. The Bush administration is clearly on the defensive. April 12, 2004 -- The Vulnerabilities of the Bush Iraq Policies by Phyllis Bennis. Almost one year from President Bush's announcement of the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq, the U.S. drive towards empire faces new and serious challenges. April 7, 2004 -- Student Activism in Focus offers a Foreign Policy Issue Guide. Ask the questions in this guide at events in your area and make candidates take a public stance on these issues. Use this information as a resource for hosting your own debates, teach-ins, and panels. Hand out the enclosed flyers to students on your campus. March 22, 2004 -- Report from a Rainbow-Covered Rome Phyllis Bennis reports from the March 20 Italian peace march. March 21, 2004 -- Profiting from the war by Jim Vallette of SEEN in the Bangor Daily News March 16, 2004 -- Talking Points: The Iraqi Constitution & Events in Spain by Phyllis Bennis March 12, 2004 -- Impeachment and the Imperial President by Marcus Raskin When should a president and officers of his government be impeached? When should Congress move to initiate impeachment proceedings against a sitting president? This question is raised more times than it is answered. March 1, 2004 -- New Report: Over-Emphasis on Military Spending Short-Changes National Security Defense/National Security Experts Call for Unified National Security Budget, from Foreign Policy In Focus May 2003 -- The latest War Times features two articles by IPS Fellows: Military Budget Soars by Miriam Pemberton and The Costs of War Hit Home by Karen Dolan. April 11, 2003 -- Talking points as the statues fall by Phyllis Bennis Cities for Peace Issues and Campaigns March 13, 2003 -- Building Cities for Peace by John Nichols in The Nation March 9, 2003 -- Resolved: War Is Hell, and So Is Fine Print for the City Council by Nichole M. Christian in the New York Times (free registration required to view) March 2, 2003 --- War Is L.A. City Council's Business: Grass-roots democracy has an honored place in U.S. history by Ralph E. Shaffer and Walter P. Coombs in the Los Angeles Times "Supporters of the president's desire for a "go it alone if necessary" war argued on conservative talk shows and in editorials that a city council has no business voting on foreign policy or any other topic that is outside the scope of local government. . . But they are wrong. The antiwar champions are inheritors of a U.S. protest movement that stretches back to the 1760s and 1770s. " February 28, 2003 -- Officials fear war abroad will breed terror at home by Siobhan Gorman and Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., in Government Executive Magazine February 27, 2003 -- Bush Offensive Stalls at City Gates: Why U.S. cities are going anti-war; how L.A. joined them by Harold Meyerson in the L.A. Weekly February 26, 2003 --US cities opposed to war with Iraq Sify News -- India February 23, 2003 -- Legislators acted because administration is going too far by Ethan Strimling from Portland (ME) Press Herald. "Workers in Millinocket face a more immediate threat to their livelihood than Saddam Hussein: They need their mill re-opened. Our dairy farms are disappearing, taking generations of farmers with them. Our small businesses need affordable health care so they remain prosperous and employ more workers." February 19, 2003 -- Reserve Call-Up Drains Nation's First Responders at FoxNews.com February 10, 2003 -- Religious groups in area mixed on Iraq war in the Gainesville Sun (Florida) February 09, 2003 -- Activists press for anti-war declaration in the Park Record (Park City/Summit County, Utah) February 1, 2003 -- Both the New York Times and the Washington Post covered city and county council resolutions against the war. (Free registration required to see the New York Times story) Citizen Soldiers Leave Big Gaps on Home Front, By Dean E. Murphy in the February 1, 2003, New York Times (Free registration required) "All across the United States, the call-up of reservists and National Guard members is carving big holes in the towns and cities they leave behind. The heartache of families separating, a familiar ritual of military service, is being compounded by the community upheaval associated with a second major mobilization of citizen soldiers in as many years. Doctors. Nurses. Police officers. Firefighters. Lawyers. Teachers. Clerks. Cashiers. Mechanics. Truck drivers. Even mayors and school board members. All going or gone." Coverage of February 13 Press Conference and Congressional Hearing (click here for pictures and audio) Cities for Peace brings an anti-war message to capital, Washington Times, DC City Leaders Carry Message Against War To President, New York Times State and Local Governments Join Anti-War Voices, Washington Post Dozens of local officials protest war plans, Newsday Municipal officials march against war, Cleveland Plain Dealer Some state lawmakers urge diplomacy, not war, CNN Ithacans vote heard in DC, Ithaca Journal, NY State Lawmakers Jump Into Foreign Policy, ABC News (This Associated Press story also carried online by Austin American Statesman, TX, News Journal, Longview TX, Guardian, UK, Wilkes Barre Weekender, PA, Akron Beacon Journal, OH, Macon Telegraph, GA, Kansas City Star, MO, Biloxi Sun Herald, MS, Tuscaloosa News, AL, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA, Times Daily, AL, Aberdeen American News, SD, Belleville News-Democrat, IL, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN, Centre Daily Times, PA, Duluth News Tribune, MN, Grand Forks Herald, ND, Walnut Creek Journal, CA, Wichita Eagle, KS) Antiwar protesters gear up across the country, The Globe and Mail, Canada The Economy March 19, 2003 -- We Have a Winner in Iraq. Corporate America by Arianna Huffington at CommonDreams.org March 7, 2003 -- In Talk of War, Cost Is Avoided: Cost Estimates Vary, but Administration Saying Little by Terry M. Neal in the Washington Post Voodoo Economics, the Next Generation: George II Plans A War by Miriam Pemberton for the January 29, 2003 Tom Paine.com War 'would mean biggest oil shock ever' by Faisal Islam, economics correspondent, in the February 2, 2003 issue of The Observer (UK) "The world will suffer a bigger oil crisis than that during the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1973 if the US declares war on Iraq, according to leading US investment bank Goldman Sachs." Other Analyses and Issues The president's real goal in Iraq for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution February 06, 2003 -- War against Iraq: questions and answers by Joshua Burek, Ben Arnoldy, and Jim Bencivenga at csmonitor.com "The Monitor takes some of the questions we hear most frequently about whether to invade Iraq, and we summarize — without fear or favor — the major pro and con answers to each of them" Powell Fails to Make Case by Katrina vanden Heuvel, February 6, 2002 for The Nation.com Representative Bernie Sanders, John Conyers and 38 Other Members of Congress Request Meeting with President Bush to Discuss Potential War with Iraq, Press Release/Letter, January 31, 2003 Split at C.I.A. and F.B.I. on Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda, in the February 1, 2003, New York Times (Free registration required) Keeping Saddam Hussein in a Box by John J. Mearshimer and Stephen M. Walt in the February 1, 2003, New York Times (Free registration required) "The United States faces a clear choice on Iraq: containment or preventive war. President Bush insists that containment has failed and we must prepare for war. In fact, war is not necessary. Containment has worked in the past and can work in the future, even when dealing with Saddam Hussein." A War Crime or an Act of War? by Stephen C. Pelletiere in the January 31, 2003, New York Times (Free registration required) "The accusation that Iraq has used chemical weapons against its citizens is a familiar part of the debate. The piece of hard evidence most frequently brought up concerns the gassing of Iraqi Kurds at the town of Halabja in March 1988, near the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. President Bush himself has cited Iraq's "gassing its own people," specifically at Halabja, as a reason to topple Saddam Hussein. But the truth is, all we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the Halabja story." A General's Doubts by David Ignatius in January 31, 2003, Washington Post "As the countdown continues toward war against Iraq, it's worth listening one last time to the arguments against that conflict, as laid out this week by one of America's most distinguished retired generals, Wesley K. Clark." The double standards, dubious morality and duplicity of this fight against terror by Robert Fisk for the January 4, 2003, Independent (UK) "Meanwhile, we are ploughing on to war in Iraq, which has oil, but avoiding war in Korea, which does not have oil" Morally Unserious by Michael Kinsley from the January 31, 2003, Washington Post