Today, the war in Afghanistan becomes America's longest war. Longer than the war in Vietnam. Longer than the Korean War.
It took America two years to end World War I, and bring peace to the world. World War II was a little harder; that took us 3½ years to finish off.
The war in Afghanistan is over eight years old. And we're sending in more troops. We're not getting out. We getting deeper in.
Would you like to know why? It's not hard to find the answers. Just read the transcript of Osama Bin Laden's 2004 speech - right here.
Bin Laden's strategy was -- and is -- painfully simple: to repeat his victory in Afghanistan against Russia, by driving us into bankruptcy. As he put it, he wanted to use his "experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat." In other words, he just wants to go two-for-two.
And, as Bin Laden noted, it is equally simple to get us into that trap. As he said, it is "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies."
It turns out that Bin Laden has a keen grasp of the federal budget: "As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars. And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the mujahidin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan . . . ."
But Bin Laden felt that he needed to share the credit for the success of his plan -- share it with the Bush White House. "Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations -- whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction -- has helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results." why did the Bush White House do so? Because Bin Laden saw the Bush Administration as his partner in the destruction of America's economy: "It is true that this shows that al-Qaida has gained, but on the other hand, it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced."
The new "war front" to which Bin Laden referred in 2004 was, of course, Iraq. As he put it: "So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq . . . ."
And at all times, Bin Laden's essential strategy has remained the same. Not, as so many think, to launch more attacks on American soil, but rather to make us destroy ourselves: "we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy . . . ."
Listen to Bin Laden summing up his strategy: "the real loser is ... you. It is the American people and their economy . . . ."
How strange. It turns out that America's chief military strategist for the past decade is Osama Bin Laden himself. We've been doing exactly what he has wanted us to do: spend staggering sums on the military, until the American economy is bled dry.
But it doesn't have to be that we. We are a democracy. We can choose peace.
I have voted against Bin Laden's strategy to destroy America, and I will continue to do so. But I've done more than that. I have introduced a bill called The War is Making You Poor Act, HR 5353.
This bill requires that the war be funded by the Pentagon's base budget - "only" $549 billion. And it uses the resulting savings to eliminate federal income taxes on your first $35,000 of income - yours and every American's. It also reduces the deficit.
Bin Laden told us how he would destroy us. And we're following his instructions, to a "t." How absurd is that?
No more. We have to make our so-called "leaders" listen to us. If we are to survive.
That's what we're going to do, together. Sign our petition, and show your support for HR 5353. Ask your friends to do the same. Let's stop the war, before it stops all of us.
"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." Isaiah 2:4
Follow Rep. Alan Grayson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/alangrayson
The incoming Obama administration has developed a new Afghanistan policy, and we have been pursuing it since December 2009. The policy includes military action against violent groups and political incentives to join a democratically elected Afghan government.
While it is true that no outside empires have ever conquered and held Afghanistan, it is not true that the United States is attempting to do that. Our objective is to clean up a mess and go home.
After we bankrolled mujahideen fighters and trained Al Qaeda militants to fight the Soviets in the 1970's, after the Soviets gave up and took their army home, we walked away from Afghanistan. The ensuing civil war brought the Taliban into power there in 1996. Too bad the U.S. government was being crippled by GOP attacks on Bill Clinton. We might have been able to help out.
At this point, the Obama administration has a plan to reverse Taliban gains this year and to begin withdrawing forces next year. If that doesn't happen, if a leading Democrat echoes McCain in wondering what's wrong with staying for 100 more years, I'll be ready to sign your petition.
Thank you for that last sentence...so true, so true. Ken Starr is more responsible for 9-11 than any Democrat.
we are well on our way to be the next one. We should learn from the lessons of history.
Every Empire historically that invaded this country despite its advanced military prowess
has always fell short of its goals. The" REAL" enemy has and always will be a financial one. the secret of this, is they "KNOW IT" and "WE DO NOT". Lets us leave now while we have our pants. we have already lost our shirts and shoes over the past 8 years. how much more are we willing to lose is the question? let us not fall victim to false pride that somehow we are different and better of those that failed and cannot happen to us. Many of those that went before us believed the same thing. Delcare "VICTORY" and "LEAVE" is our best option.
Many American's have been wanting out of this war for quite some time now, and few supported Iraq, but unfortunately it takes the congressmen quite some time to catch up. It's about time, eh, congressman?
Now if you and your cronies in congress could get a clue on illegal immigration, free trade agreements, Wall Street gansters, drugs in America, public schools, and corporate treason, just to name a few, we might all be able to participate in the American dream.
Are you a commie? Just kidding. Yes, I agree, It's hilarious. Americans actually think they won WW II.II, while the Soviet Union was having a picnic. But it's an example of the type of propaganda they swallow so eagerly. I read, a few days ago, that the Nazis won WW II, they just switched to American uniforms. WW II is still continuing today. The Nazi intelligence service, lots of SS, Nazis in general came to America. All those rocket scientists! The same type of dolts that want to attack Iran.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7373946.stm
Is a vital national security interest threatened? NO
Do we have a clear attainable objective? NO
Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?NO
Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted? NO
Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement? NO
Have the consequences of our action been fully considered? NO
Is the action supported by the American people? NO
Do we have genuine broad international support?[1] NO
Begin the investigations into war profiteering, and contracting fraud.
Allow International war crimes tribunals to try the cases they have.
The war effort provides cover for them. Stop it.
We don't need them so bad we can disregard the rule of law.
This whole scenario resembles a very large and well organized mafia protection racket being run on the American people.
We will never get al Qaeda to surrender this way.