The Greenfield Recorder reports (17 May 2007) that the Greenfield, Massachusetts, Town Council voted 8 to 3 against a resolution asking Congress to start impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney for a variety of Constitutional and human rights violations. The President of the Council is quoted as saying, “this is a symbolic resolution” and that the Council has “more important issues to deal with, like the budget.”

What the Council President fails to understand is that a symbolic resolution has real significance, especially, in this case, regarding the budget. The Bush/Cheney invasion of Iraq has cost Greenfield, MA $24,200,000 as of 26 February 2007, according to figures compiled by the National Priorities Project, from Congressional, Defense Department, and IRS data.

Neither the Town Council of Greenfield nor any other municipal government has legal authority to stop the fiscal and human hemorrhaging caused by the invasion. But every official symbolic vote against this devastation and in favor of impeaching the leaders responsible for it has significant political impact. The Greenfield Council has missed an opportunity to call for an end to the siphoning of money and lives away from real local needs to finance the Bush/Cheney regime fantasies of world domination.