| AFT Backs Capital's War on Iraq
COUNCIL APPROVES RESOLUTION ON IRAQ (AFT On-line News January 24 2003) As the military and political showdown on Iraq heats up, AFT executive council members approved a comprehensive resolution Jan. 23 recognizing the threat of Saddam Hussein to the region and the world as well as the need for action to force him to give up his weapons of mass destruction. The resolution condemns Saddam Hussein's regime of terror, torture and systematic murder against his own people and the threat he poses to stability in the Middle East and the national security interest of the United States. The resolution was critical of how President Bush has handled the crisis on Iraq, noting that the union is "gravely concerned" that the president "is pursuing a deeply partisan domestic agenda at a time of prospective war." Nevertheless, "we know that our position on national security issues must be taken in response to security threats and not from our disagreement with the administration on other issues." In the debate, council members noted that if military action in Iraq is necessary, a program to promote democratic institutions--and not just a change in regime--must be created in the aftermath. Any international military action in Iraq "must be followed by a comprehensive and fully funded international program to rebuild the nation's infrastructure," says the resolution, as well as economic rehabilitation, free and open education, basic healthcare, the rule of law, tolerance for religious diversity and the right to free association. The full text of the resolution is posted online at www.aft.org/about/resolutions/2003/iraq.html. |