Les maires US antiwar

Les maires US antiwar

C’est un événement sans précédent au niveau institutionnel aux USA, pour la période présente : un mouvement de contestation des guerres extérieures US des maires des villes US. Leur association est réunie depuis le 17 juin, jusqu’au 21 juin, et elle pourrait voter une résolution dans ce sens, dont le nom est “ Bring Our War Dollars Home”. L’argument est simple : les villes payent pour des guerres qu’on pourrait, qu'on doit juger inutiles et dispendieuses, – l’argument de la mort de ben Laden est avancé, – alors que la situation intérieure catastrophique nécessite des crédits urgents.

Cette initiative est exceptionnelle, également dans le sens où il s’agit de la première fois depuis la guerre du Vietnam où les maires US, dont la préoccupation essentielle est intérieure, interviendraient par une résolution dans la conduite de la politique extérieure. L'initiative renforce le courant centrifuge général à l'encontre de Washington et de sa politique.

Medea Benjamin, de l’association CODEPINK (Women for Peace), qui a initié cette résolution, fait rapport de cet événement dans CommonDreams.org, ce 17 juin 2011.

«…The city of Detroit stands as a mirror to the United States’ battered economy and failing wars. Our nation’s continued military exploits in Iraq and Afghanistan are fueling Detroit’s destruction. Taxpayers from Detroit shell out over two billion dollars a year for war, money that could cover healthcare for over 150,000 children or the payment of some 3,000 teachers’ salaries. […]

»…At this year’s annual U.S. Conference of Mayors, to be held from June 17-21 in Baltimore, hundreds of mayors will gather to discuss diverse issues from job growth to homeland security. One of the issues they will vote on is the Bring Our War Dollars Home resolution, introduced by Mayor Kitty Piercy from Eugene, Oregon, which calls on Congress to redirect military spending to domestic priorities.

»Thanks to the work of localgrassroots activists under the leadership of CODEPINK’s Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign, the resolution has 20 cosponsors from cities such as Minneapolis, Baltimore, Santa Fe and Ithaca. All agree that the wars’ combined cost of over one trillion dollars would be better spent in job creation, health care, sustainable energy, infrastructure, and programs to reduce poverty and crime in American cities. “We are spending a billion a month after Osama bin Laden has been killed. And while I appreciate the effort to rebuild nations around the world, we have tremendous needs in communities like mine,” said Joseph C. O'Brien, the Mayor of Worcester, MA and a co-sponsor of the resolution.

»The U.S. Conference of Mayors is not known for challenging foreign policy and hasn’t called for an end to a U.S. military engagement since the days of Vietnam. But even the Conference’s mainstream Executive Director Tom Cochran seems fed up with Washington’s priorities. “As the slashing continues by Washington targeted to American cities, $150 billion a year is poured into the Afghanistan War. The money being sent and spent abroad goes unchecked. The small amount provided for infrastructure, security, community development here in the USA is slashed,” Cochran wrote in the April 25 edition of U.S. Mayor.»

dedefensa.org