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I want to thank PDA for continuing to pressure against the pillars of power supporting the Long War in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. You are making military escalation more difficult and building a political obstacle to the Pentagon and White House plans through 2012. A long war demands of us a long peace movement.
Thirty one Americans lost their lives in Afghanistan last month, which is more than twice the number killed in January 2008 and January 2009. The fighting in Afghanistan is intensifying even in the winter.
The total number of Americans killed in Afghanistan as of today is 978, an increase of 317 since President Obama took office. A total of one thousand Americans will be dead by the end of this month. The total number of American dead so far in Iraq and Afghanistan is 5,353. The number of Iraqi and Afghan dead is in the hundreds of thousands.
The American budgetary cost, according to the economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, will be three trillion dollars for Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon’s Long War is projected to last at least fifty years, through 13 future American presidential elections.
These wars will devour resources that could go to health care, education, humanitarian aid and saving the planet.
We must stop them, step by step, war by war.
First, support Rep. Barbara Lee’s HR 3699 to cut taxpayer funding for the escalation in Afghanistan. If it’s not possible politically to cut funding now, the fight can achieve two things: a headcount of how many Congress members are with us, and a message to President Obama that many in his own party are not with him.
Second, there will be a fight this year to attach serious conditions to any funding bill that does pass: for example, [a] holding to a deadline for the withdrawal of US troops, as proposed by Sen. Russ Feingold, [b] human rights standards for Afghan detainees, [c] launching all-party peace talks, and [d] ending Predator attacks which kill civilians, inflame Muslim opinion, and further the spiral of escalation.
While we should oppose President Obama’s troop increase, we also should support the 2011 deadline he has set for beginning to withdraw. If we don’t demand the beginning of withdrawal—with an endpoint as well—all the pressure on the president and Congress will be to continue the war indefinitely. We need to make US withdrawal from Afghanistan an issue by the 2012 national elections.
Iraq is a template for us. When the Iraq war became too costly, a bipartisan and bi-national agreement was quietly arranged in which US troops would withdraw in stages by 2011. President Obama is sticking to that schedule while many in both Iraq and the US are attempting to derail him.
PDA and the peace movement should generate maximum pressure to end both wars by 2012. We make a crucial difference. If the peace movement doesn’t persevere, the pressure on Congress declines, which in turn causes Congressional peace forces to decline—which only serves the permanent lobby for permanent war.
Please sign and circulate the Afghanistan peace petition and subscribe to The Peace Exchange at www.tomhayden.com. And, attend a Brown Bag Lunch Vigil the third Wednesday of every month.
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