The U.S. House of Representatives is now debating for two hours a resolution [H.Con.Res. 28] calling for President Obama to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan no later than Dec. 31, 2011.
[FCNL has provided a toll-free number for calling Congress on this vote: 800-530-1748. You can watch the proceedings on houselive.gov.]
Relative to the opinions of the vast of majority America's working families, the Kucinich-Jones-Paul resolution is a mainstream, middle-of-the-road, motherhood-and-apple-pie proposal.
This week, the Washington Post reported that nearly two-thirds of Americans - including half of Republicans - believe that the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting, and nearly three-quarters of Americans say Obama should withdraw a "substantial number" of combat troops from Afghanistan this summer. The Post didn't report what Republicans thought specifically about substantial withdrawal, but a reasonable inference from the report is that the majority of Republicans support substantial withdrawal.
Last month, the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution calling for a "swift withdrawal," a call repeated yesterday by the Out of Afghanistan Caucus. Also yesterday, 80 Members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama calling for a significant and sizeable reduction in U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan beginning no later than July.
What did General David Petraeus have to say about all this in his Congressional testimony? He invoked the Osama Defense: if the resolution passed, it would give Osama the victory.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Petraeus called the resolution a mistake... [...] "The Taliban and al-Qaida obviously would trumpet this as a victory, as a success," Petraeus said.
If the Osama Defense is what Petraeus has to offer by way of defense of the current policy after 10 years, more than a thousand Americans dead, hundreds of billions of dollars spent, he is essentially conceding the argument: two-thirds of Americans are right, the war is not worth fighting. And we should get out.
The resolution is not expected to pass. A similar resolution last March only received 65 votes. But last month, 98 Members - including almost half of the House Democratic caucus - voted to cut funding for the war. More than 150 Members of the current House have publicly challenged the war since last July. As AP notes:
Lawmakers on both sides of the issue will be watching the vote total closely to see if the opposition gains support.
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What a twisted vision he has.
Of course they would. But guess what? They are going to declare victory at some point anyway, because we can't keep playing whack a mole forever. There is no "victory" on the horizon. Petraeus can't even define victory, much less make it happen. GET OUT NOW!
No American has been able to clearly state what "winning" for the US even means!
That's our Obama. I did love him from day one, and I'm very happy Hilary didn't get in there, because she's really just a hair removed from a Republican.
But, can't we get Anthony Weiner in the White House? Now, there's a guy with a serious set of brass balls! And he will fight for us!
The war was lost a decade ago. Victory for Osama et al was assured the minute America decided to go to war over a criminal act. The plan to drag America into endless super-expensive war on multiple fronts and then watch its credibility, resources and reputation decay before the world's eyes was assymetric warfare 101. Look at the state of the US's global profile and internal finances now. Osama could make an excellent argument that he has already won. And the US defeated itself by its own greedy hand.
Patreus is chasing shadows, generating long lasting and widespread enemies for America, all in service to dollar-hungry defence contractors and their congressional lap dogs. There is nothing more to it than that.
_ OBL died a long time ago.
_ The Taliban never attacked America on 9/11, it was Al-Queda.
_ Al Queda infests several countries like Somalia, Pakistan, etc but not Afghanistan.
_ No military has ever won a war within the mountains of Afghanistan.
_ To win a war a war in Afghanistan, an army must kill a large segment of the civilian population.
_ Companies and their investors are making millions and billions from war profiteering in Afghanistan while ruining the remaining shreds of America's global image.
_ America is filling up with dead soldiers, ruined families and amputees over a war that can never be won and shows no end in sight.
_ Perpetual war is the bread and butter of totalitarianism.
Joe Rogan: The American War Machine - Redux
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsFIrzRPybk
- Canada's military has been fighting alongside the US forces since the beginning and has lost, per capita, almost the same percentage of soldiers to the fight - with even less recognition than US soldiers receive.
killed/population (approx)
CAN: 150/34M
USA: 1500/310M
And in the meantime, we, the average citizen are always the loser.
But, a lot of people that get paid a lot more than I do are responsible, ultimately, for making all the decisions necessary in Afghanistan. I think there's a lot of money in Afghanistan, gold, other precious metals, not to mention that Afghanistan is the world's leading exporter of heroin, so...