"Today, for the first time since the Vietnam War, the United States Conference of Mayors, representing the 1,200 American cities with populations of 30,000 or more, overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution calling for the President and Congress to bring a speedy end to military entanglements in Afghanistan and Iraq so we may shift those resources to addressing the critical challenges we face here at home—including reducing our national debt. The original resolution was drafted by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa earlier this spring, and I was proud to be the first of many Mayors across the country to sign on to this worthy cause.

"Now, some might argue that it's not appropriate for local elected officials to take a stand on a national issue like this. But the fact is, it is our constituents who are being sent off to fight and die in these wars. It is our citizens who are being asked to fund these wars with their tax dollars. And it is our communities that struggle when huge sums of money are being diverted from local priorities to military adventurism and 'nation-building' activities abroad. Perhaps Mayor Villaraigosa put it best when he said, 'That we would build bridges in Baghdad and Kandahar and not Baltimore and Kansas City absolutely boggles the mind.' You might say, it's time to do some 'nation-building' here at home for a change.

"Passage of this resolution puts the U.S. Mayors firmly on the side of a growing bipartisan coalition, whose members include Senate Tea Party Caucus Founder Rand Paul, Congressional Progressive Caucus Founder Bernie Sanders, former Ambassador and current Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, Republican Senator Mike Lee and many others, who have argued for a quicker drawdown of American fighting forces than the Obama Administration has seemed inclined to support. This position was embraced by 73 percent of Americans in a recent ABC News poll, where strong majorities of Democratic, Independent and Republican respondents alike agreed that we should start bringing substantial numbers of American troops in Afghanistan home to their loved homes as soon as this summer.

"I am very pleased that my fellow Mayors have taken the opportunity today to speak with clear resolve, for the first time in 40 years, on a matter that is of such tremendous importance to all cities and all citizens of this nation. We know that this action alone won't bring a speedier end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we certainly hope it will help amplify the growing chorus of support for the effective enshrinement in national policy of Isaiah 2:4, which reads:

And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.”