Afghanistan withdrawal

By Will Parry

          After a full decade of brutal warfare, the ice is beginning to crack around our government’s obstinate pursuit of an ill-defined “victory” in Afghanistan.

          In the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, many courageous voices in Congress and elsewhere are calling for the safe but speedy withdrawal of our troops and an end to the war, now the longest in our history.

          Vital initiatives by members of Congress in both the House and the Senate are designed to turn up the heat on the Obama Administration to speed the withdrawal and to stop the slaughter.

          These initiatives are ignored or under-reported in the media.  But they are critically important.  The Pentagon and the military brass in Afghanistan are talking about a withdrawal of only about 5,000 troops in July, with another 5,000 by the end of the year.

          With well over 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, “withdrawals” on that pathetic scale would guarantee stretching the bloody fighting and dying into the indefinite future.

          Robert Greenwald and Derrick Crow, writing in Reader Supported News, summed up the situation bluntly:

          “Osama bin Laden is dead.  Al Qaeda has been driven from Afghanistan.  The last plausible excuse for keeping troops in Afghanistan is gone.  Yet the military continues to fight a counterinsurgency campaign with tens of thousands of U.S. troops, a campaign that’s failed to blunt the ever-growing level of insurgent attacks across Afghanistan.  Civilian casualties are at an all-time high.  Troop injuries and acute stress are at an all-time high.  Costs are at an all-time high.  There’s no rational reason left to continue this farce.”

          Some in Congress are determined to bring a halt to the killing.

          Maine Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree has launched a nationwide petition campaign, asking citizens to sign this simple message to the President:

          “We commend you for bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.  Please keep your commitment of an accelerated withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan beginning this July.”

          Meanwhile, California Congresswoman Barbara Lee has introduced HR 780, the “Responsible End to the War in Afghanistan Act.”  The bill has 60 co-sponsors, including Representative Jim McDermott of Washington. Here is the complete text:

          “It is the policy of the United States to ensure that funds made available for operations of the armed forces in Afghanistan are to be used only for providing the safe and orderly withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel and Department of Defense contractor personnel in Afghanistan.”

          Representative Lee has also secured the signatures of 81 members of Congress on a letter to the President calling on him to order a “significant and sizeable” withdrawal of troops in July.

           In addition, Representatives Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, have introduced the “Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act.”  It would require the President to present to Congress a timetable for withdrawing the troops and a clear end date for the war.

          It would also require the President to submit quarterly reports to Congress on the progress of troop withdrawal, as well as on the human and financial costs of continuing the war.

          The McGovern-Jones bill is especially important because it carries with it the prospect of a roll call, in which every member of the House would have to endorse either a continuation of the open-ended war in Afghanistan or an unambiguous plan for military withdrawal.

          McGovern and Jones are expected to offer their bill as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012 defense authorization bill, when it comes before the House in May or June.

          In the Senate, New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has sponsored the “Safe and Responsible Redeployment of United States Combat Forces from Afghanistan Act of 2011.”  The measure is co-sponsored by Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Sherrod Brown of Massachusetts and Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois.  Gillibrand has invited rank-and-file voters to become “citizen co-sponsors” of the bill.

          The President’s timetable calls for U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan through 2014.  But within the administration, there’s a fierce tug of war on the issue, with some for, others against, speeding the withdrawal.

          Polls show the war is increasingly unpopular.  In March, weeks before bin Laden’s death, a poll by ABC News and The Washington Post found that nearly two-thirds of respondents no longer believe the war is worth fighting.

          Some in the Senate are having second thoughts.  Durbin, who voted in 2001 to authorize the war, is among them.

          “Now here we are, ten years later,” Durbin said.  “The longest war in U.S. history, with no end in sight.  Even with the killing of Osama bin Laden, that is not what I was signing up for.”

          And Durbin added, “If you believe that resolution of this conflict by military means is highly unlikely and not a realistic basis for U.S. policy, how can we send one more American soldier to fight and die in Afghanistan?”

          Senator Carl Levin (D, Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says he will publicly advocate for a “significant reduction” of troops.

          Even Senator John Kerry (D, Mass.), who says we “can’t pack up and leave,” admits that “we must factor in what we can afford in light of our budget constraints.  We will spend $120 billion in Afghanistan this fiscal year…We have to ask at every turn if our strategy in Afghanistan is sustainable.”

          Others in Congress who have now spoken out against indefinite continuation of the war include Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Representatives Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Raul Grijalva (D, Ariz.), Lynn Woolsey (D, Calif.). Maxine Waters (D, Calif.), Barney Frank, (D, Mass.), Cliff Stearns (D, ----_) and one Republican, Walter Jones  of North Carolina..

          MoveOn.org has launched its own petition drive, paralleling Pingree’s.  “A collective call from hundreds of thousands of Americans to bring our troops home will give the President the public support he needs to begin a swift, safe and significant withdrawal of our troops,” MoveOn said. 

          Pingree plans to deliver her own petitions to the White House, and if MoveOn can reach its goal of more than 125,000 signatures, she’ll deliver them, too.   

          While all this is going on in Congress, “September 11^th Families for a Peaceful Tomorrow,” composed of family members of the September 11^th victims, sounded a note of sanity after bin Laden’s death:

          “As we consider the killing of Osama bin Laden,” they said, ”our thoughts turn not only to our family members who were killed on September 11^th, but to all of the innocent people around the world who have died, and continue to die, as a result of the events of September 11^th, 2001.

          “It is our hope that the rule of law, underpinned by our Constitution that was so terribly strained in the name of September 11^th will again become the guiding light of our policies at home and abroad. 

          “One person may have played a central role in the September 11^th attacks, but all of us have a role to play in returning our world to a place of peace, hope and new possibilities.  We hope that process will begin today.”