A debate on the Iraq war initiated a little bit of a tussle among Boston's city council members on Valentine's Day. They decided that they were tired of being left out by the other, more important legislative bodies, who have all debated and voted for or against totally pointless resolutions against the war. Members quotes American legends such as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in their attempt to seem larger-than-life, like their idols.

Boston City Council members debated a non-binding resolution named "The Resolution to Support Our Troops By Bringing Them Home from Iraq and Afghanistan" to call for the immediate withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq. An entirely symbolic measure that, at best, would effectively accomplish nothing. At the worst, however, it tied up 48 minutes of city council members' precious legislation time (over 10 other actually local issues used up 42 minutes of the council's time by comparison) and drew a painful parallel between the bloated, ineffective nature of the council and the wave of violence that has been sweeping Boston's streets for over a year now.

Councilor Chuck Turner led the City council on the debate, and he took the most heat for the useless showboating. Almost half of all the victims of violence that were gunned down last year were killed in Turner's district and local community activists have lambasted him for ignoring his duties as councilman. At critics, Taylor fired back that a shortage of funds resulting from the United States' expenditures in its quagmire of a war in Iraq have caused a decrease in public safety funding like police and other anti-violence measures.

Boston City Council members are paid $87,000 dollars a year, and members critical of Chuck Turner's move insisted that they are paid that salary to discuss and legislate issues local to Boston, not the Middle East. More conservative city council members like Sal LaMattina, Stephen Murphy, and Jerry McDermott argued that if the council was allowed to discuss the Iraq war, it should also be allowed to discuss other hot buttons issues (especially those dear to the right-hand side of the political spectrum) like immigration and the prison industry. Sal LaMattina represents East Boston, Charlestown and the best neighborhood in the world, the North End. Jerry McDermott is the representative from college-kid-town Allston/Brighton, and Stephen Murphy is a council member at-large, representing the entire city.

While Boston City Council president Maureen Feeney initially did not oppose the debate because of Turner's focus on budgetary issues she ended up joining the Pro-war side and opposed the limp resolution. On the other hand Micheal Flaherty initially opposed the debate when he was city council president using a technical loophole that limits what can be discussed during hearings to prevent such debates, but voted on the anti-war side of the resolution. Other city council members Micheal Ross, Felix Arroyo, Sam Yoon, and Charles Yancy supported the measure and voted on the anti-war side.

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