New York, the city hurt the most by international terrorism, has voted to oppose war against Iraq, except as a last resort. New York is one of more than a hundred U.S. cities to adopt an anti-war measure.
New York's City Council passed the anti-war resolution by a vote of 31 to 17. The resolution is a softer version of one that was presented last October, opposing a possible war against Iraq without the authority of the United Nations.
For months, New York's local government debated whether the city, which suffered the greatest loss in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, should take a stand in the debate on how to solve the crisis in Iraq.
The document the council endorsed allows a pre-emptive strike only after all other options have failed to gain compliance with United Nations efforts to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
Recent polls have shown that the majority of New Yorkers oppose war against Iraq without backing from the Untied Nations. They staged a massive anti-war protests were near United Nations headquarters in New York City.
More than 100 U.S. cities, large and small, have already passed anti-war measures, including Los Angeles in California, Portland, Maine, Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta in the southern state of Georgia.