Vermont BOSTON , MA – On Tuesday March 1st, 2005, town meetings across Vermont will discuss resolutions calling for the withdrawal of U.S. military from Iraq and the provision of humanitarian assistance to Iraq . They further call on the Vermont Legislature to set up a commission to study impacts of National Guard deployments on soldiers, families, communities and the state. These resolutions were initiated by a coalition of groups in Vermont that includes Vermont Military Families Speak Out – a group of families with loved ones in the military, including the Vermont National Guard. The resolutions point to the erroneous claims that were used to take the U.S. into this war. They also point to the substantial costs of the deployment of the Vermont National Guard, including deaths, injuries and trauma for the troops, as well as hardships on families and employers. Vermont communities have been placed at risk due to the deployment of essential public safety personnel. Extended deployments in a war that should never have been fought leave Vermont without its full contingent of troops in times of emergency or natural disaster and also threaten the long-term viability of the Vermont National Guard as enlistment and re-enlistment rates decline. Summary of the Petition to Place Iraq War Resolution on the Warning of the 2005 [               ] Town Meeting • The war in Iraq was advanced and the Joint Congressional Resolution authorizing U.S. action in Iraq was adopted on the basis of erroneous factual claims. Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and was never shown to have a connection to the 9/11 attacks. • The costs of deploying Vermont National Guard members in Iraq has been substantial,  reckoned in deaths, injuries, and personal trauma, as well as dislocation and financial hardship to businesses and communities. • We call on the members of the Congressional Delegation to work to restore a proper balance between the powers of the States and the power of the federal government over state National Guard units. • We call on the Legislature to investigate and discuss the role of Vermont in the governance of its National Guard, as the Vermont Constitution authorizes it to do, and to set up a commission to study how Guard deployments affect readiness here in Vermont . • We call on the President and the Congress take steps to withdraw American troops from Iraq, consistently with the mandate of international humanitarian law.