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TechnoratiHouse Liberals Float Bill to Bar Troop 'Surge'
Nearly two dozen House liberals have signed onto a bill introduced this past week that would prohibit an increase of troops in Afghanistan.
![[Re. Barbara Lee, D-California, appeared on Democracy Now! this morning, marking the 8th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan. Lee and 21 lawmakers -- largely from the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus -- introduced the bill, H.R. 3699 last Thursday. (Image: Democracy Now)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/Rep. Barbara Lee.jpg "Rep. Barbara Lee.jpg")
A bill introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on Thursday would bar funding to increase the troop level in Afghanistan beyond its current level.
Lee and 21 lawmakers -- largely from the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus -- introduced the bill, H.R. 3699 on Thursday.
The legislation comes as President Barack Obama and leaders in Congress weigh a request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of troops in Afghanistan, for as many as 40,000 new troops to bolster the eight-year-long military engagement in the region.
"History tells us that there will not be a military-first solution to the situation in Afghanistan," Lee told the Redding News Review. "Open-ended military intervention in Afghanistan is not in our national security interest and will only continue to give resonance to insurgent recruiters painting pictures of foreign occupation to a new generation."
The Obama administration is expected to make a decision on McChrystal's request for more troops "in a matter of weeks," National Security Advisor James L. Jones said Sunday.
An while liberals in the Democratic Party have been somewhat wary of a larger troop commitment to Afghanistan, Jones vowed that the president's decision wouldn't be swayed by politics.
"I don't play politics, and I certainly don't play it with national security, neither does anyone else I know," Jones said on CNN. "I can assure you that the president of the United States is not playing to any political base."
8 Comments so far
Show AllThank you, Ms. Lee for standing up to the rest of your fellow congressmen. This has nothing to do about national security. If we left Afghanistan today, they would go right back to killing each other again, along tribal and ethnic lines. Being in Afghanistan does nothing to thwart global terrorism, it just places our serviceman as the bullseye of a target, the occupying invader. Stopping and impeding terrorism is a job for police and intelligence agencies. If given the right tools and eliminating inter-agency rivalries and cooperating with our allies,the people on the front lines of combating this menace could keep the U.S.A. relatively safe. There is no such thing as absolute in our open society.
Go Barbara!
When she voted, ALONE, against the original war authorization Barbara Lee said this:
"Let us not become the evil we deplore".
and for 9 years her words have been echoing around the halls of congress, the white house and the pentagon.
Bravo to Barbara Lee!
Hey, what have we here but another preview message?
If this president doesn't play politics with national security, the same surely can't be said of neo cons. Meanwhile this president is doing an academy award winning performance for a oe term presidency by not doing almost a single thing he said he would do in his campaign.
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If this president doesn't play politics with national security, the same surely can't be said of the neo cons. Meanwhile this president is doing an academy award winning performance for a oe term presidency by not doing almost a single thing he said he would do in his campaign.
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Barbara Lee was the only Congressperson to vote against Public Law 107-40 back in 2001. She was the only one who didn't buckle to the lies, deceits and political blackmail of Bushco.
I admire her courage, and especially commend her and the others who introduced legislation, rather than the usual Progressive tactic of wishing everything from Santa Obama.
I again reiterate that America needs to revisit Public Law 107-40, the engine that drives all this madness.
The legislation suggested will hold the line for now, if successful, but will not address the prime cause of this DAFT war.
Barbara Lee continues to speak for me!
A pull out would not be playing with national security. It would be real national security Just like a pull out of Viet Nam before we were kicked out would have been.