Public Employee Press

Unions question U.S. overseas wars

As the war in Iraq heads toward its seventh anniversary in March, polls show that the majority of American people are against continuing this commitment, and the vast cost steals billions of dollars that could be used to create jobs and help fiscally pressed cities and states. Opposition to the war has grown in the U.S. labor movement.

The 2009 AFL-CIO convention in September called for a “speedy withdrawal” from Iraq, citing the dead and the wounded, the economic crisis at home, the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs, and the colossal cost ($650 billion spent in Iraq already). The resolution quoted President Barack Obama’s 2008 statement: “It is past time to end this war that should never have been waged by bringing our troops home.”

The 2008 convention of DC 37’s national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, called for “the quickest possible withdrawal of U.S. troops, consistent with their safety.” The resolution said the cost of the war could provide health care for 39 million people or fund Head Start for 18 million children and called it “a national disgrace” that those who have served cannot get decent medical care and financial support when they return from war.”

In 2009, the Coalition of Labor Union Women called for an Afghanistan Exit Strategy in a resolution that cited the huge costs (Congress just appropriated $106 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) and reminded Congress that “our states and cities face deep cuts in social services and unemployment grows.”