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<br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: March 24, 2003 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. ~ <br />SUBJECT: Resolution Supporting a Peaceful Solution to Conflict with Iraq <br />DEPARTMENT: Human Rights and Relations PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Original Resolution from HRR <br />Resolution with Commissioner Brown, <br />Gordon and Jacobs' suggested changes <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Annette Moore, 245-2250 <br />Patricia Casper, Chair, HRC <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough <br />Chapel Hill. <br />Durham <br />Mebane <br />732-8181 <br />968-4501 <br />688-7331 <br />336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To consider a resolution supporting a diplomatic resolution to the conflict with Iraq. <br />BACKGROUND: On October 16, 2002, President George W. Bush signed an Iraq War <br />Resolution overwhelmingly approved by Congress granting him unilateral authority to take <br />military action against Iraq regardless of United Nations activities. The resolution gives <br />President Bush the authority to use military force, if necessary, to rid Iraq of its biological and <br />chemical weapons, disband its nuclear weapons program and to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein. <br />The War Resolution also provides that the President provide either before, or within 48 hours, <br />notice to the Congress that further diplomatic measures would not have protected United States <br />security and how military action would not hurt the war on terrorism. <br />The Congress has not granted a President such broad and flexible authority to carry out an <br />undefined military operation since the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution -- which helped bring <br />expansion of the Vietnam War. <br />The Human Relations Commission (HRC), at its October 14, 2002 meeting, voted to ask the <br />Board of County Commissioners to support a resolution asking President Bush to exhaust all <br />diplomatic measures to resolve the conflict with Iraq prior to utilizing pre-emptive military strikes <br />that could lead to war. <br />FINANCIAL IMPACT: None <br />RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board approve the resolution <br />and authorize the Chair to sign the resolution. <br />