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Hillarysworld -> Obama and Congress -> Some Democrats warn Obama against new U.S. troops for Afghanistan (Count Us Out) 10-08-09.
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TOPIC: Some Democrats warn Obama against new U.S. troops for Afghanistan (Count Us Out) 10-08-09.
freespirit


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Some Democrats warn Obama against new U.S. troops for Afghanistan (Count Us Out) 10-08-09.
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Some Democrats warn Obama against new U.S. troops for Afghanistan

Count Us Out

Some Democrats warn Obama against new U.S. troops for Afghanistan
WASHINGTON BUREAU – Democrats on Capitol Hill warned President Obama on Thursday that a decision to send more troops to Afghanistan could trigger an uprising within his own party, one that could lead to an ugly public debate about the conduct of the eight-year-old war.
Key members of the House Appropriations Committee suggested that should Obama side with his top commander in Afghanistan and agree to add as many as 40,000 soldiers to the war effort, the lawmakers could retaliate by attempting to cut off funds for the troop buildup.
“I believe we need to more narrowly focus our efforts and have a much more achievable and targeted policy in that region,” Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.), the committee chairman, said Thursday, “or we run the risk of repeating the mistakes we made in Vietnam and the Russians made in Afghanistan.”
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), another top appropriator and an influential voice in military affairs, predicted a fight on the House floor if a supplemental request to fund a troop expansion were to come to a vote.
“The public is worn out by war,” Murtha said. “The troops, no matter what the military says, are exhausted.”
Obey’s and Murtha’s comments were the strongest suggestions from Hill Democrats yet that Obama could face significant opposition should he accept Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendation to send thousands more combat troops to Afghanistan as part of an aggressive new counterinsurgency strategy to keep the Taliban from seizing power.
They came on a day when the president’s national security adviser, James Jones, briefed House members on the current situation in the region.
If a schism among Democrats erupts, it would mark the first time in Obama’s term that he will have faced a serious backlash from lawmakers in his own party–and it may be a reason why the president made a point to reach out to congressional RepublicansWhite House meeting earlier this week.
Obama is in the midst of reviewing the administration’s policy in Afghanistan. Options include the troop build-up as well as alternatives such as limiting the war effort to reducing the threat posed by al-Qaeda, or focusing on using military trainers to build up the Afghan army.
Congressional Republicans have been pressing Obama to approve McChrystal’s troop increase request, casting it as a test of the president’s commitment to the war.
But while Democrats such as Obey and Murtha have been openly critical of the idea, most have kept their views more closely-held, saying they would await the president’s ultimate decision before expressing an opinion.
Recent history has shown that when pressed, Democrats have been unwilling to undermine the president by using their appropriations powers. The party re-took control of Congress in 2006 in part by vowing to end the conflict in Iraq, but instead many Democrats ended up joining with Republicans to pass bills that continued to fully fund the war.
http://countusout.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/some-democrats-warn-obama-against-new-u-s-troops-for-afghanistan/

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Alex


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My totally uninformed opinion is that this is another Vietnam.  It's an opportunity for the military-industrial complex to make loads of money off of the blood of Americans and non-Americans.

The f'n 9/11 terrorists came from SAUDI ARABIA!!!  And we can't babysit Afghanistan forever.  There are other countries where there are hostilities, and we're not going there.

This is crap and Obama, as we all know, if a liar.  He's a corporate tool, or he would have stopped it already.

But what do the WOMEN of the region say?  After I wrote the foregoing, I found this at www.commondreams.org just now, in an article by Jodie Evans:

This is all in quotes:

“[snip]

The women in the provinces are suffering. Obama sent 3,000 troops to Wardak for security, and daily there is bombardment, and deaths,” she told us. “They kill these boys I helped into the world.” She asked the military the other day about a boy and his father who were not connected to the Taliban. “Why did you kill them?” “Because they had relations with the Taliban.” “I have relations with Taliban daily, Tali are Afghans. I have to go to their weddings and funerals.” She told of a harvest, with peaceful farmers collecting potatoes, helping each other. They finish one plot and move to another. A rocket kills them. She asked the soldiers, the governor, the chief of police and none of them know why. They asked officials at the base in Kabul and are told they thought there was a rocket there. But it was a shovel. All these innocent farmers leave wives and children with no means of support.

Dr. Wardak said Obama sent soldiers to her province so they could vote, but those who went to vote were killed. “How is that protecting us?” she asked. “Take care of your people and keep them home and keep us safe. So if you want to ask me this, ‘should we send more troops or not?’ I want to ask you, with 84,000 American troops what did you do?  Please compare 2009 with 2008, and compare 2008 with 2007, and 2007 with 2006.  Year by year, the condition became more worse.

“With no troops our condition was much better and we were safe. The only ones suffering are the women.” Answering another question from an NGO she said, “spend the money on education for women, which is very necessary for peace.”

One afternoon we met with the women who led a protest against a law justifying marital rape that Karzai signed. These few hundred women and very few men demonstrated outside the Mosque of the Ayatollah who pushed through the law, and an angry mob poured out, screaming and throwing rocks. All these women were frightened for their lives and yet have not backed down. Some were never political before but are now creating new organizations to be stronger for the next fight.

All the women who speak out—from the MPs, to members of NGOs to those in the streets—fear for their lives, but it is not stopping them. The only women I met who told me they hadn’t received threats or felt afraid where five women journalists from the ROSE, a magazine for women on politics, culture and women’s lives. This is just weeks after they did an article about how much more women suffer from AIDS than men. Why aren’t they afraid? “We are just telling the truth, it is not political,” they told me.

When asked if they wanted more troops or the money invested in jobs, police training and infrastructure support most women choose the investment in their country. They know “military is not the answer,” which is a quote not just from them but from the director of the USAID office in Kabul. Everywhere we heard the recurrent theme, “Money for jobs, and make the Taliban obsolete with better alternatives.” And the recurrent question, “the United States is the power in this country, they pay for everything. Why can’t they do something about the corrupt government? Why can’t they hold these people responsible?”

In the last days of our trip, we joined a trialogue of women from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan discussing peace, which cannot occur without cooperation among their countries. We decided to offer a letter to Obama to bring him their voices. Members of Parliament, professors, NGO leaders, ex-ministers, and even the sister in law of Karzai signed the petition to Obama [see sidebar, “A Letter to President Obama”].

Won’t you join with them? It will take the women of the world to rise up and say militarism is not working. It will take the women of the world to force Obama and Congress to do the right thing and invest in the women instead. Militarism is a fire that is spreading across borders, and we need to find a new language. We need to meet not in rooms without windows but in the majesty of the mountains of this once beautiful country. Everyone has to be at the table. As the minister of women told us, “We have a mouth and a brain, we should talk.” Transparency, justice and real investment in the women of Afghanistan will bring peace and we need to start now.

-----

 

A Letter to President Obama

The delegation that went to Afghanistan to sound out Afghan women on what they wanted from the United States returned with an open letter to President Obama:

President Obama:

We, the women of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the United States, implore you to refrain from sending more United States military forces to Afghanistan.
 
Sending more military forces will only increase the violence and will do further harm to women and children. Instead, the funds should be redirected to improving the health, education and welfare of the Afghan people.
 
We encourage you to work quickly for a political solution in Afghanistan that will lead to a reconciliation process in which women will fully participate and a withdrawal of foreign military forces.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/08-7



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freespirit


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Thanks for posting this from Common Dreams, Alex. Makes me realize that I need to do a lot more educating myself on this issue.

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It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.... Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.  ~Susan B. Anthony
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