Not again.

On June 23, Bellingham City Councilperson Terry Bornemann introduced a resolution urging a diplomatic surge toward Iran and opposing military intervention in that country without Congressional approval. Why should the Bellingham City Council divert its attention away from important local matters to address yet another foreign policy issue? Didn’t it take enough flack for the Troops Home Now! Resolution in 2006?

Could it be the same reason that our National Guard is being diverted from its intended role in state emergency response? Perhaps it is the same reason that school administrators are diverting their time away from teacher development and curriculum improvement. Could it be the same reason governors are diverting their attention away from crumbling infrastructure to ward off financial ruin?

It doesn’t take a four star general to see the common denominator underlying these quandaries.

Our occupation of Iraq continues unabated, with a taxpayer price tag of $270 million a day. It has already cost the City of Bellingham $98 million. And the human costs to the United States are staggering with over 40,000 casualties, including 4,100 troops killed. Bellingham is home to some of these families.

So why, you ask, is the city council stepping in once again to consider another resolution, this time opposing U.S. military intervention in Iran?

Simple. If our local elected officials won’t, then who will?

The people whose job it is to act responsibly choose instead to ignore the international community - while they can. In spite of national sentiment for diplomacy, our representatives in Washington, DC seem oblivious to the administration’s saber-rattling. According to a recent Gallup poll, 6 in 10 Americans feel the U.S. President should meet with Iran’s President Ahmadinejad. Yet, the Bush Administration has already made up its mind to fabricate a justification for igniting a ball of fire in the Middle East, regardless of U.S. National Intelligence Estimates to the contrary. And a not so subtle removal of North Korea from the “Axis of Evil” last month has apparently left only Ahmadinejad and the mullahs standing between us and our “Freedom.” Haven’t we been here before?

Thankfully, the uncanny resemblance between current aggression against Iran and the run-up to the Iraq War is not going unnoticed by everyone. Mohammed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world’s nuclear weapons inspectorate, insisted last week that he does not consider Iran a danger. He went on to say he will resign if a military strike is carried out.

If the U.S. invades Iran, retaliation by remaining Iranian military assets in the region will be devastating.

Remarkably, pushback still exists in the Pentagon against pre-emptive attacks on Iran, according to a recent report by The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh, and the time to bolster dissent is now. Even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, during a recent meeting with Democratic senators, slipped and warned that a “pre-emptive strike on Iran will create generations of jihadists” for our grandchildren to be battling here in America.

Our grandkids, right here at home. Talk about all politics being local.

A few voices may contend that the Bellingham City Council has no business in foreign policy. But just who is stepping on whose turf here? Let there be no mistake: it is the Bush Administration with its immoral sophistry and irresponsibility that is infringing on us. Our city council is simply (but boldly) working to preserve the safety and freedom of the citizens it serves—working, essentially, to preserve ‘our way of life’, while trying to save us from accruing even more of a moral debt to the world.

Last month at the U.S. Mayors Conference in Miami, Mayor Bob Kiss of Burlington, Vermont introduced a resolution opposing military intervention in Iran. It now boasts 32 co-sponsors, representing municipalities from Tacoma to Chapel Hill, with city council resolutions cropping up all over the country.

We are not alone, but it’s time to be counted and demand to be heard:

“Not again!”