THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
www.cagreens.org
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Contact: Sara Amir (Los Angeles) 310.270-7106 saraamir@earthlink.net
Pat Driscoll (Sacramento) 916.320-6430 pat@sonicfrog.com
Susan King (San Francisco) 415.823-5524 funking@mindspring.com
Greens mourn loss of Marine lives in Iraq, urge
cities, counties to also consider loss of funds that could save lives
at home.
SACRAMENTO (August 3, 2005) - The Green Party of
California today mourned the loss of another 14 Americans Wednesday,
and at least 21 since Tuesday in the war in Iraq - and said that the
cost of war not only takes human lives in the war zone, but here in
California.
Citing statistics that indicate more than $26
billion could have been spent on human needs in California - many of
them life-saving - the GPCA urged local governments to send a clear
message to Congress and the Bush Administration that the U.S. should
withdraw immediately from Iraq.
According to NationalPriorities.Org
- which monitors the cost of the war using government statistics -
California could have used the money spent on the war to provide
healthcare to nearly 11 million Californians, or 16.5 million
children, hired 409,000 elementary school teachers or built 153,000
affordable housing units.
In Sacramento Wednesday, a coalition of
organizations, including Greens, veterans and minority
representatives, previewed a resolution asking the City Council to
call upon Pres. Bush and Congress to leave Iraq immediately, end
military recruitment on high school and college campuses, ensure
veterans are cared for and reallocate the war expenditures to provide
health care, education and affordable housing for Sacramentans.
Similar resolutions have been introduced and
approved, including one in San Francisco. Other resolutions, including
one on the ballot in San Francisco, also call for an immediate end to
military recruiting in high schools, colleges and universities.
"This war in Iraq has truly become a
quagmire, as many predicted. The human cost of this illegal war
touches not only the troops on the ground in Iraq but all of us here
at home," said Pat Driscoll, a GPCA spokesperson and former
congressional candidate.
"When we think of the lives we could save in
California by providing health care and other human services instead
of spending it on this ill-conceived war, then it behooves us to
pressure not only Congress, but our local elected representatives to
stand up and say 'enough is enough,'" Driscoll added.
More: NationalPriorities.Org
