Berkeley CA passes resolution condemnming US military response to 9/11

[Lucky]

God, this better not be a respost. I searched for it every which way possible.

Link to story

BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- The left-wing bastion of Berkeley, Calif., narrowly
voted Tuesday night to condemn U.S. military action in Afghanistan and not before
the addition of an amendment denouncing the terrorist "mass murder" of thousands of
Americans on Sept. 11.

The resolution, which passed on a 5-4 vote, was believed to be the first official
statement by a U.S. city critical of the U.S. military response to the destruction
of the World Trade Center and the damage to the Pentagon.

Although public opinion polls show the American public in favor of the military
response by an unprecedented margin, former city council member Ying Lee Kelley urged
the panel to "continue to honor Berkeley's tradition of opposition to brute force
to solve profoundly difficult social problems."

Berkeley, home of the University of California at Berkeley campus, was the birthplace
of the free speech movement in the 1960s with Mario Salvo and has been a hotbed of
peace protests since the Vietnam War.

The San Francisco Chronicle said a recent poll of Berkeley students showed 65 percent
were opposed to the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan.

While the Chronicle Wednesday described the council's makeup as split between leftist
and centrists, there were a number of residents at Tuesday's meeting urging the resolution
be defeated.

"War does solve something," said Kelso Barnett, the head of a conservative student
group at the university. "Ask the people of Europe who were liberated after World
War II."

The council passed the measure, however not before changing the wording to call
for the bombing to end "as quickly as possible" rather than immediately.

At an Afghan restaurant in the "Little Kabul" district of nearby Fremont, home to
the largest U.S. population of Afghan people, a couple who appeared to be in their
70s and had attended Berkeley, told United Press International that they had organized
a group of 10-20 -- similar to the much larger group of 300 or so anti-war types in
nearby Palo Alto -- that hold daily protests against the bombings and were gaining
support from passersby.

"We get a lot of car horns honking and only an occasional call of 'traitor,'" said
the woman, who declined to give her name, noting that the reception was encouraging
given Fremont's overall conservative attitudes. "Smart bombs are not smart," she said,
echoing the sentiment on the sign she holds up for Fremont traffic.

(Reported by Hil Anderson, Fremont, Calif.)

 

[Lucky]

no one wants to ridicule berkeley?

 

[DDad]

Why ridicule them- it's pointless! Maybe they'll change their mind if/when they get a envelope of anthrax

 

[Red Dawn]

Hell if they didn't I would be worried. They don't call that place The Peoples Republic of Bezerkly for nothing.



<< hold daily protests against the bombings and were gaining
support from passersby. >>

Hehehe I have news for them. Being told to Shut the Fsck up is not a sign of support

 

[ShadowHunter]

Oh please. I liked what Mike Savage had to say on that tonite!

 

[Kaervak]

<< Hehehe I have news for them. Being told to Shut the Fsck up is not a sign of support >>



LMAO. Comedy gold.

 

[b0mbrman]

Yep. I read about this in the Cal paper this morning...it's disgusting.

text

By NATE TABAK
Daily Cal Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 17, 2001

The Berkeley City Council called for an immediate end to U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a series of divisive votes at a meeting Tuesday.

The resolution opposing U.S. military action, approved Tuesday with lone support from the council's five progressives, was first introduced a week ago and put Berkeley again under the national spotlight.

"It was a glib, thoughtless, knee-jerk response that has just ripped our city apart and caused tremendous pain when it wasn't necessary," said Councilmember Polly Armstrong, a centrist moderate.

The idea of a resolution opposing military action had been brewing among progressives for more than three weeks.

The resolution, drafted by left-leaning progressive Councilmember Dona Spring and supported by her four progressive counterparts, urged President Bush and congressional representatives to "help break the cycle of violence as quickly as possible" by stopping the bombing and the endangerment of the innocent people in Afghanistan.

Instead, the terrorists should be brought to justice in a world court, Spring said. But as Mayor Shirley Dean was quick to point out, it could be difficult to deliver a subpoena to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden.

Dean said it would be nearly impossible to bring the terrorists to court and insisted that "you have to take a strong action against the terrorists."

Dean said that since the resolution was first made public last week, her office has received thousands of e-mails from across the country lambasting the council. Some of the letters, which include death threats, left her staff in tears, she said.

Comments made by Spring last week, in which she called the United States a terrorist?remarks she now disputes having made?thrust Berkeley into the center of attention again. It was the third time in as many months that city blunders have embarrassed Berkeley before a national and international audience, Dean said.

In August a meeting at City Hall with visiting Japanese boy and girl scouts had to be relocated because of the Boy Scouts of America's policy toward gays, a move that brought national ridicule. Likewise, a decision last month to remove flags from the city's fire trucks put the city on the defensive.

Tensions were high at the meeting, attended by more than 100 city residents, some waving flags in support of military action and others displaying signs calling for an end to the war.

Spring, who revised her original proposal after being "disavowed" by Dean and her three moderate allies in a biting statement released last week, criticized the lack of moderate support for the revised resolution, which she said was "seeking to be conciliatory" to the moderates.

"The item has been revised to be more sensitive to some of the input that was gotten from the public," Spring said.

Moderates on the council said they did not want to take a stand on the airstrikes in Afghanistan because the city's residents had many opinions on the attacks and had no clear consensus.

Amid heckling and applause from the crowd, Armstrong ridiculed the resolution as another embarrassment to Berkeley.

"When our country has been wounded, we seem to just flail away in the public eye, trying to draw attention to ourselves, and we come off as fatuous and embarrassing," she said. "We come off sounding like a bunch of nuts."

But Councilmember Kriss Worthington urged the council to be "equally as brave" as Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who was the lone voice of opposition to the "War Powers Resolution" passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Worthington said it is "critical" that Berkeley question the government while many Americans are afraid to ask questions.

He said Berkeley could again make history by condemning the Sept. 11 attacks, a move he said had not been made by any other council. A competing resolution from Armstrong to commend President Bush for his response to the Sept. 11 attacks, including his patience in forging an alliance with 60 countries, was voted down by the council.

Those who attended the meeting were similarly split in their opinions of the military action.

In response to those who said the bombing was justified to overthrow the repressive Taliban, known for its poor treatment of women, Snehal Shingavi, a UC Berkeley student and member of the audience, questioned "when has a bomb ever helped a woman?"

Kelso Barnett, who sat on the opposite side of the room, said, however, that military action is justified because war was declared against the United States on Sept. 11. He said no distinction should be made between the terrorists and countries that harbor them.

 

[Unsickle]

I go to UC Berkeley.

I fully support the military action. Berkeley is full of wackos, including the council members. I'm outta here when I graduate!

 

[TallBill]

heh, people can think what they want... having 2 sides is always good.. cuz one sided stuff usually sucks

 

[DAWeinG]

I vote we all should slap them! Each and everyone on that council! Whoever opposes will get slapped too! Non-participants will be slapped too! Someone slap me!

 

[Logix]

The San Francisco Chronicle said a recent poll of Berkeley students showed 65 percent
were opposed to the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan.

That was a really flawed poll taken by the student newspaper, but regardless, the fact that 35% of the students actually agree with the rest of the country (including me) is remarkable for my school here on the Left end of the country.