THE "SOLID SOUTH" BEGINS TO CRUMBLE

Mistake
· Iraq war tragic
September 13, 2005

REMARKABLY, two West Virginia Republican mayors have denounced the Iraq war launched by Republican President George W. Bush — and one is backing a council resolution seeking withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Charleston Mayor Danny Jones, who fought in Vietnam, told reporter Paul Nyden that he wouldn’t want his 16-year-old son “involved in this enterprise.” He asked: “Is it really worth spending $150 million a day?” If America had a draft to obtain soldiers for Iraq, Jones said, “there would be blood in the streets.”

South Charleston Mayor Richie Robb, who earned a Bronze Star in Vietnam combat, said “I am not sure what we are doing,” because White House reasons for the war change each time a previous reason proves untrue.

He said that to invade Iraq in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attack — which had no connection to Iraq — “would have been like invading Mexico after Pearl Harbor.”

Robb supports a proposed resolution by Council President Dayton Griffith which says the U.S. occupation “is serving to prolong the insurgency there” and “has led to greater instability.” The resolution demands return of American soldiers by the end of this year.