News - Local News

POSTED: Tuesday, Jul. 15, 2008

Bellingham City Council opposes intervention in Iran

Vote hailed as grass-roots democracy

BELLINGHAM — Any military intervention by the U.S. government in Iran has been officially opposed by City Council members.

In unanimous approval, the council declared via resolution that the city of Bellingham doesn’t want another conflict similar to the Iraq War, wants to prevent more U.S. troop and civilian deaths and wants to avoid billions of dollars in costs that have trickled down to local jurisdictions.

“There’s nothing weak about being against war,” said Councilman Gene Knutson before the vote. “There’s nothing weak about being for peace. And there’s nothing weak about what we’re doing tonight. For what we’re doing tonight is what democracy is all about, whether you agree with it or you don’t agree with it.”

The approval is a follow-up to the late 2006 approval by City Council members — with former Councilman Bob Ryan the only one opposed — of a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

In a scene reminiscent of that 2006 vote, members of the public cheered and gave the council members a standing ovation after their approval of the new resolution.

The anti-Iran war resolution was offered up by activists from the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center and supported by City Councilman Terry Bornemann. Mayor Dan Pike, who is on vacation this week, said previously that he is in favor of the resolution.

During the debate, 18 members of the public spoke in favor of the resolution. Nobody attending the meeting spoke against it. Council chambers were fairly full — though not packed — with those waiting to speak their “peace.”

“Doing what is right and just is never meaningless,” said justice center Executive Director Marie Marchand. “Acting to save lives, to prevent war, can never be rightly characterized as nonsensical.”

Marchand and nearly every person who spoke about the resolution also spoke out against a Bellingham Herald editorial that opposed the council taking up the resolution. Most were frustrated because they said the editorial termed what locals were doing as “meaningless.”

Marchand said that the editorial’s logic equates to Oscar Schindler’s actions — made famous by Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film — being meaningless because they didn’t stop World War II.

Council members acknowledged that some members of the public will be opposed to the council approving something that they may consider to be the purview of Congress. But, Councilman Jack Weiss said, local jurisdictions are affected by the billions of dollars being spent on the war, because that money isn’t making its way to local municipalities that badly need it. And the soldiers who die, Bornemann said, come from cities like Bellingham.

“If we are not going to get the kind of leadership that we need out of Washington (D.C.),” he said, “then we have to take a leadership role at a local level to speak up.”