24 Wisconsin communities vote for Iraq withdrawl

24 of 32 Wisconsin communities approved refurendums calling for the pullout of US forces from Iraq.

This of course is absolutely meaningless and was purely a symbolic gesture.

Most of the referendums asked if the voters supported withdrawing the troops immediately, and Evansville also had one urging support of President Bush, which voters rejected.

Measures such as this have been done in other states, which apparently served as the model for Wisconsin.

"They have seven months to listen to us, to the voters and to do the right thing," she said. "The people have spoken. This is what democracy looks like."

"The morale of soldiers _ and their safety _ could dip when they hear about such referendums passing", said Bill Richardson, treasurer of Vote No To Cut And Run, a group that opposed the measures. "It's a political statement and it's hurting people and it could cost lives," said Richardson, 63, a one-time bandmaster in the Wisconsin Army National Guard.

Supporters shouldn't be too pleased with the results, said John McAdams, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University. Victory margins in many of the liberal-leaning cities were lower than rates won by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, meaning swing voters haven't been swayed by anti-war sentiment, he said.

I guess we'll see in six months.

Tags: Wisconsin, Iraq, Pullout, Troops