Heidelberg Resolution for DPCA

WHEREAS the US-led military intervention was preceded by deliberate misrepresentation on the part of the coalition governments of key facts concerning Iraq’s military potential prior to the invasion;

WHEREAS both the military invasion of Iraq and the installation of the provisional government have been an unqualified failure;

WHEREAS subsequent to the immediate period of the invasion from March 2003 to September 2004 during which some 112,000 Iraqis perished, ca.655,000 Iraqi civilians died in the period from October 2004 to July2006* besides coalition military and civilian personnel (including 3008 dead American soldiers as well as ca. 22,000 wounded GIs as of13.1.2007);

WHEREAS civilian refugees are currently fleeing from Iraq in largenumbers;

WHEREAS in the aftermath of the coalition intervention in Iraq the levelof support for international terrorism has increased, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has worsened, the entire Middle East hasbeen destabilized and there has been a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan;

WHEREAS US citizens clearly demonstrated their disapproval of thePresident’s Iraq policy in the 2006 congressional election;

LET IT BE RESOLVED that the Democratic Party exerts strong pressure tosecure a political rather than a military solution to the civil war in Iraq. Military force cannot be the answer to communal violence. Alasting political solution can be achieved only in concert with Iraq’sneighbors. The Democratic Party rejects George Bush’s policy ofincreased deployment of US military forces in Iraq and refuses toapprove funding for any buildup of American troops.