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Kucinich Plans to Force Vote on US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
For Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Afghan President Hamid Karzai's announcement Tuesday that his country would need the US's military support for another 10 or 15 years seems to have been the last straw.
The outspoken House representative says it was Karzai's statement
that prompted him to draft a resolution calling for a House vote on the
withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"We shouldn't be there another 15 to 20 months, let alone 15 to 20 years," Kucinich told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "When I'm in my district talking to people, nobody has come up to me and said we need to be in Afghanistan for the next 15 to 20 years. They do say we need jobs, we need to protect our basic industry, we need education, we need to protect retirement security. I'd like to see us start taking care of things here at home."
Kucinich is circulating a letter (PDF) among congressional colleagues asking them to co-sponsor his resolution.
My bills, which would trigger a timeline for a timely withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan, invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and are intended to secure the Constitutional role of Congress, as directly elected representatives of the people, under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, to decide whether or not America enters into war, continues a war, or otherwise introduces armed forces or material into combat zones.
Despite the president's assertion that previous congressional action gives him the authority to respond to the attacks of September 11, 2001, a careful reading of the Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) makes cleat that the AUMF did not supersede "any requirement of the War Powers Resolution" and therefore did not undermine Congress' ability to revisit the constitutional question of war powers at a later date.
"We cannot afford these wars. We cannot afford the loss of lives. We cannot afford the cost to taxpayers. We cannot afford to fail to exercise our constitutional right to end the wars," Kucinich said in a statement circulated among reporters on Wednesday.
Kucinich told the Plain Dealer he expects his resolution to land at the House International Relations Committee early next year. If the resolution is voted down, he will ask to have it moved back to the floor of the House -- a maneuver that earlier this year allowed him to debate the impeachment of former Vice President Dick Cheney on the House floor, the Plain Dealer notes.
During a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Kabul on Tuesday, President Karzai told the Pentagon chief that Afghanistan would need the US's help in security matters for 10 or 15 years going forward. President Obama's plan to start withdrawing troops in July 2011 has sparked concern in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan that the Taliban could sit out the surge and attack a pared down force in 18 months' time.
"For 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources," Karzai told a news conference. "We hope that the international community and the United States, as our first ally, will help Afghanistan reach the ability to sustain a force."
-- With Agence France-Presse
- Posted in
105 Comments so far
Show AllKucinich is one of the few unbought congress people who is willing to stand up to corporate power.
The brain dead US electorate always votes for the guy who talks change, not the guy who actually makes change.
at the same time, there is no real choice. The corporate candidate with the most money always wins. And even then, only Duopoly corporate candidates are known, the rest are ignored, smeared and censored from the media. Elections are bought and paid for. Chomsky and others call it a "sham" democracy.
AN AMENDMENT TO THE KUCINICH BILL
ESCALATE FOOD AND JOBS, NOT TROOPS.
How insane is Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan?
To sustain 100,000 troops in Afghanistan for one year, the United States will spend EIGHT TIMES the yearly gross domestic product of that country; $100 billion for 100,000 troops, versus a GDP of $12.5 billion, or about $446 each of Afghanistan’s 28 million people.
A few more statistics about Afghanistan. Unemployment stands at about 40%; and, according to the World Food Programme
( www.wfp.org/countries/afghanistan ), in 2007 - 08, “7.4 million people are unable to get enough food to live active, healthy lives. Another 8.5 million people, are on the borderline of food insecurity.”
Parents are selling their children because they cannot feed them. ( www.asia-pacific-action.org/node/24 )
Into this nation of desparate poverty and hunger, America is spending our resources to flood the country with troops.
The response of the peace movement should be obvious. With just the budget for the “surge” of 30,000 new troops, $30 billion, we could more than DOUBLE the income of everyone in Afghanistan. And that is what we should be pressing Congress to do.
Starting in the cities and towns which are now half way secure, we could make Afghans richer than they have ever been. We could feed everyone and pay workers to build housing, schools, clinics and new businesses. AND we could easily pay for Afghan security forces who would be motivated to protect the prosperity of their families, so that the prosperity/security zones would expand.
We should support Denis Kucinich’s bill to set up a time line for withdrawal. But we should add an amendment. Right now we should be spending the proposed escalation money to fund PROSPERITY ZONES, increasingly protected by Afghan militias who will be protecting these zones.
We can’t defeat the Obama escalation by just saying “no.” We have to propose a credible alternative. Once the economic reality of Afghanistan becomes known, we can begin to help the American people (and Congress) to understand that we can buy more security with generosity than we can with troops. And it won’t cost a dime more. In the long run, much less.
"(W)e can buy more security with generosity than we can with troops. And it won’t cost a dime more. In the long run, much less."
Exactamente!
I am overjoyed that someone is finally bringing the law and the Constitution into our Progressive effort to stop this madness.
- the Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) -
(Public Law 107-40)
Hooray! Hooray! Someone has finally mentioned in public the flaw of a law that both started this madness and prevents us from ending it.
Imagine, a law that sets as a goal for the US military the preventing of future terrorism.
That's DAFT (Defense against Future Terrorism)
"Kucinich told the Plain Dealer he expects his resolution to land at the House International Relations Committee early next year. If the resolution is voted down, he will ask to have it moved back to the floor of the House -- a maneuver that earlier this year allowed him to debate the impeachment of former Vice President Dick Cheney on the House floor, the Plain Dealer notes."
____________________________________
I report, with NO delight, that my first thought after reading this was, "... and how's THAT working out?".
Sorry, but though Kucinich isn't responsible for the overwhelming decadence and corruption of Amerika's political institutions, and tries his best to be "part of the solution"-- how can even a sympathizer read the above-quoted passage without thinking "too little, too late"?
The question of whether Kucinich is more to be pitied or censured for becoming a kind of Congressional progressive mascot abides in CD comments threads. IMO, stories like this just keep the pot boiling.
It's hard not to cynically dismiss these sorts of things as the monstrous "grown-ups" in Congress reluctantly and condescendingly letting little Dennis have his moments of glory.
I'm not sure if anyone will even "debate" the question if and when it comes up. It's obvious that the mendacious sacks of crap in Congress, i.e. 99% of them, would sweetly murmur that our monarch already HAS a "withdrawal" plan implemented, so there's no need for Congress to re-plow this ground. End of Discussion!
Good luck to him, but this sort of news just isn't encouraging.
Even at this late date, it might be a good idea for Dennis to change his first name to "Don", as in "Quixote".
· Yr Obd't Servant
Don Quixote fought windmills and Dennis is fighting the windmills of the Military,Industrial,Banking Cartel,Congressional, Complex.
The criminal, Karzai, simply wants the great criminal gang, the U.S. military, to back his cabal for another 15 years while he and his cohorts sack the country and it's opium wealth for themselves and for their masters in Washington!!!
Wonderful summary of "Karzai's Truth," risingdawn. Then there's "Bush's Truth" (both of them [actually all of them: Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Barbara, and I don't know about Dorothy]); "Cheney's Truth;" "Rumsfeld's "Truth;" "George Tenet's "Truth" -- [oh, hell, the whole Bush Administrations' "Truth"]; all C.I.A. Directors' "Truth;" U.S. Senators' "Truth," House Representatives' "Truth," Obama's "Truth;" The Federal Reserve's "Truth;" and going back ...
However, I will subtract from the above list, elected politicians Dennis Kucinich and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. These two consistently have their minds, hearts, spirits in the right place and have guts. But then there's the "Truth" of our Electoral Process.
Someone said it succinctly the other day here on CD to the effect that: There's nothing about the government, the people can trust.
Now all we gotta' do is wake up the majority of our fellow citizens out of their respective apathies and head-in-a-hole-in-the-ground ostrich trances before the roof caves in.
But, even then, short of a cross-nation, armed revolution or massive State secessions, the roof likely will cave in anyway. We're out-monied and outgunned.
How depressing.
Yet ... there's gotta' be a way!
/cm
The idea that having US troops in Afghanistan for 15 to 20 years will make a difference in the ultimate outcome is "theatre of the absurd."
Too bad this is all symbolic and will amount to nothing. The Empire must collapse from witin due to corruption, financial mismanagement, and imperial overstretch.
It might take another 5 decades or more, but the US Empire is slowly declining and rotting from within.
At this rate, with "leadership" like FUBARack Obama, George Wanker Bush and whatever gaggle of fools and fuckheads the duopoly has in store for us in the future, it won't take five decades for a total collapse to occur.
You're an optimist, socialist. I think the US Empire is teetering right now and that collapse in the next five to ten years is likely. I fear what that dying elephant will do to the rest of the world in its throes.
odoco
I have opposed this in the past - but it may well be time for Kucinich and others of his ilk to leave the party. I have previously believed that by staying in the party that at least they had a national voice, albeit small and easily ignored. Now - they need to be the ones that lead the way out of the duopolistic morass and actually ignite a mass following sans the system.
I love Dennis Kucinich, and I will always support him.
But the time is long past for change - real change, to take place.
Following up on Odoco's comment, if Nancy Pelosi does not rally her fellow Democrats to support Kiucinich's proposal, then Kucinich should finally wake up and realize that his fellow Democrats have absolutely no intention of implementing any of his progressive ideas. It is long past the point that Kucinich bring a halt to his masochism by leaving the Democratic party and joining instead a third party which would be much more receptive to what he has to offer the American people.
I believe Americans are ready for a third party, but I would argue that in order to be a viable third party it has to have a broad coalition; and do that that you need both progressives and conservatives to join forces and get rid of the labels. Something like a Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul ticket.
I couldn't agree more. I've always been on the side of "work from within the Dem party", but more and more I'm starting to see that may not be the way to go GIVEN THE CURRENT CONTEXT. And I think there ARE many similarities in the things progressives and conservatives see as issues. Kucinich & Paul in 2012!
I think most of the Libertarian menu is just nuttiness.
That much said I'm impressed with how much money the Paul-heads raised for his Presidential run.
If Kucinich and Paul were to form a ticket I'd recommend a limited platform:
1) End all wars/occupations.
2) Return the country to being ruled by Constitutional Law, not a unitary executive.
3) End the Fed
These are common positions shared by the left and libertarians.
We can join forces and accomplish these goals or we can continue the status quo and watch what's left of the country be destroyed.
I do not necessarily agree with Ron Paul, but I just do not see how there can ever be any kind of third party movement with out tapping into the anger of the people on the right that are fed up with the Republicans. Folks, we need to realize that like Cygnus states above: " we can join forces and accomplish these goals or we can continue the status quo and watch what's left of the country be destroyed. Or another way to put it: if we don't all figure out some way to hang together,we will surely all hang separately!
well said, these core values are shared by true progressives and libertarians and if we could accomplish them even in part we would be on the right path, which is something we certainly cannot say for the current travesty of a democratic house, senate and presidency.
paul revere we already have a broad coalition its called the Democratic party at lest ten of them are Republicans Dennis and bernie sanders maybe
Right on, I have been advocating a Paul/Kucinich ticket since the last primaries. Those two have more in common as far as principle and core ideology than they have with most of their fellow party members.
Double post, removed.
... annnnd then he'll eventually back Obama 2012 & bring a lot of "progressive" votes with him. "Dennis said it was OK to vote against my own interests." Haven't we seen this dog'n'pony show before, folks?
Sorry to say it, but I'm with quizmasterchris on this one. Back in '04 I was a supporter of Kucinich, right up to the moment where he gave up even trying to make a dent in Kerry's platform and signed on, encouraging all of us to join him in the furor of Anybody But Bush.
One more necessary but ineffective act in the last days. There will be no history because there soon will be nobody left to read history. Protozoa and history do not go together.
I WILL VOTE FOR KUCINICH, I WILL WORK FOR HIS CAMPAIGN, GEE LET'S JUST GET HIM ELECTED AND I COULD USE A JOB!
For Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Afghan President Hamid Karzai's announcement Tuesday that his country would need the US's military support for another 10 or 15 years seems to have been the last straw.
The U.S. will not be in Afghanistan for another 10 or 15 years. We will be defeated long before then. The Afghan insurgency is not composed of pussies. Most of those people would have been considered brutal and backward in the Dark Ages. We are no match for them and there is no way we are going to defeat them. Vietnam might as well never have happened. The jerkoffs in the U.S. military, Popeye types with large forearms who can drop to the ground at a moment's notice and perform 200 one-armed pushups, cannot get it through their tiny minds that one-armed pushups don't mean shit to those people. We are playing in their house and the house always wins.
Recently groups of approximately 30 recruits along with their Sergeant have started showing up at my health club. Nobody can figure out why they're there. Perhaps their facilities are undergoing reconstruction.
One recruit will do some pushups while everyone else claps and encourages him. Then when he's done they discuss ENDLESSLY how well, fast, and properly he did his pushups. Then the next guy does them.
They're basically kids, 18 and 19 years old. It's pretty sad. Not to mention bizarre.
One of these days I'm going to find my way to the center of their group and ask if any of them has ever read Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket".
Maybe I can save one of them from throwing their lives away.
MS: "We are playing in their house and the house always wins." Yeah, and particularly if the players are subsidizing the house. See the article in November 30 issue of Nation (you know, that diminishing nest of "Progressives for Obama") on how the U.S. actually subsidizes the Taliban, in the form of bribes paid to prevent them from attacking U.S. military convoys.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/roston
When you're feeding your own opposition, how can you ever "win?"
And by the way, "Go Dennis" (Go to Green Party that is.) I've voted and campaigned for you twice, but never, never again as a Democrat.
reminds me of a passage in Apocalypse Now. Kurts said:
Quote
And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God... the genius of that! The genius! The will to do that! Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand that these were not monsters, these were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that.
Unquote
Why now Mr. Kucinich? Your efforts will prove to be more than futile but an empty gesture. I am afraid Mr. Kucinich that you are part of the problem at this point along with all your fellow Democrats.
If you really oppose this war as you claim, take yourself out of the Democratic Party as of right now and become a Green Party member or Independent. Staying with the Democratic Party is a fruitless choice at this late date in America's dying country and empire. Yes, America is literally dying from the inside in and those outward, laugh at the late Great USA now.
Again, folks, the prayers for America's future cannot be vested in any political party or ideology at this time. America's political leaders are all morally and ethically empty and spiritually bankrupt. America's political leaders are bloodlust heathens no matter what "religion" than claim to profess. America's leaders justify war, ignore poverty, and politic about the loss of jobs and the right for all to have healthcare with only care for profits and the bottom line. Mr. Obama and his minions in Congress think nothing of spending more and more on the military and advancing wars around the globe all in the name of American Empire, yet, still have the nerve to accept such awards as Obama did today. America's political leaders are disgusting to say the least. Every one of them makes me sick to my stomach!
This is the forum to start it everyone, Kucinich 2012 lets get him elected, I would volunteer time and energy to his campaign. KUCINICH 2012
So you waste your time and money in the rigged primaries, then Dennis reverts to form and backs Obama again, long before Labor Day.
No, no, no... third party and independent candidates are the only remote hope of salvation, and the only route that lets you keep a shred of dignity in November and after.
He needs to go independent to have a shot at the presidency. I would love a Kucinich/Bernie Sanders ticket, and I echo comments below to keep a simple platform that has wide appeal and is a platform that resonates with the workers of this country. Of course, it's likely that the only real way that Kucinich would be effective in the Oval Office is to be exactly like those presidents we despise - Bush, et al. He would have to force Congress' hand to get things passed.
Dennis Kucinich does not need change party affiliation.
A third party candidate would be less effective. Dennis is already there, working for the people and he has the respect of all sides.
There are many representatives that side with Dennis backing the Constitution and social justice but they lack his courage.
With Dennis as President, those allies will stand up and get things done.
Electing a third party candidate does not mean they won't have to deal with Congress.
If he doesnt follow the program he will be ineffective because they will blow his head off.
I'm on board but, as I said above, only if he campaigns as an independent or some populist party other than the Democratic. Jerry Rose Gainesville FL
Even if he gets elected he won't "change" your world...I can't believe people can't see this strategy...now that Obama screwed up (which was part of the agenda) the people are going to fall for another trap, (Kucinich) yet again..it's laughable
Bull poop!
Dennis Kucinich is out there fighting for us.
What are you people doing?
You say the corporate candidate always wins, then how do you think a third party is going to get in? Who do you have, bitter, old, vengeful, negative and trash-talking Nader?
If you support the constitution and the people, support Dennis Kucinich.
He does not have to leave the democrat party. Dennis is very effective in his city of Cleveland, in Congress and as a human being that always does the right thing by the people.
DENNIS KUCINICH 2012.
Dennis is well paid and comfortable. It's his job to go through the motions as if he's doing something, and a crucial part of that job is to cave in near the end of every election cycle and encourage you to back whatever Dem candidate(s) have 180 degree opposite positions that he "fights" for.
Charlie Brown, meet Lucy. She has a football for you to kick.
Nader is "negative" because he is reviled, slandered, libelled, fined (here in Pennsylvania) and smeared for staging a real fight, not a make-pretend one. Actually my only real complaint about Nader is that he's WAY TOO POLITE to the liberals.
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
Exclusive Interview: Nader Responds to 'Spoiler' Claim
By Kimberly Palmer
Posted February 26, 2008
INTERVIEWER:"Did you like any of the original candidates?"
RALPH NADER: "Yes, I like Dennis Kucinich. In 2004 and 2008, I told Democrats to vote for Dennis Kucinich in the primary."
Well said.
... and to vote for Ralph Nader in the general election! You omit that crucial difference.
Kucinich told you to vote Obama... and Kerry... and Gore... and Clinton...
quizmasterchris: You haven't been paying ANY attention to what D.K. DOES for us on a regular basis. WAKE UP and grow up!
I respect Kucinich as one who tells truth to power and is a point of light is that dismal swamp we call the capitol. But your point is well taken about mobilizing and holding on to some of the progressive vote for the dem party. I suspect that it is the Dem leadership more than Kucinich who are to blame for this.
I no longer see any distinction between the mainstream dems and mainstream repubs, they are all pushing the same basic program.
Well, glory be to bitter, old, vengeful, negative and trash-talking Nader, if by such as that ye know him. And blessings on Kucinich, too, and I'll forgive him walking through the gates of Hell and consorting with any manner of demons as long as he keeps slapping them and telling them to straighten up.
Meanwhile, there are two clear things to be doing with a third party.
1. Provide an alternative to the Democrats that does not look like John McCain or sound like Sarah Palin - or vice versa, I suppose.
--- THIS DOES NOT MEAN WINNING AN ELECTION. (Sorry about the typographic malfeasance, but this is a big point). It does mean forcing politicians to negotiate to get votes.
2. Get the money out of elections. Yes, you can be Democrat and support this, but the party as an institution does not.
--- Remember that moment when 0bama turned to HClinton to say that the ranks of Democratic candidates had to be thinned? As a Kucinich supporter, your natural allies on this particular point are mostly outside of your party -- bitter old Ralph and bright young Cynthia McKinney and even strange but honest and impassioned old Ron Paul.
Meanwhile, if you-all can cobble together a candidate half Kucinich's stature who's actually willing to call himself or herself or even itself a Democrat and do so in public, I will hie me thither to the nearest polling place and sweetly and contentedly place a vote for a Democrat.
If we had more pols just like Kucinich in Congress, we the people wouldn't have to be put through the burdensome task of having to call our Congress people just to "make them do it". I have seen some people suggest that we just keep on writing letters, emailing, calling, etc... our members of Congress but at what point do we finally say enough already? At some point, we the people have to realize that not only will they not listen to us but that they will continue to "boldly" shill for our opponents, the monied elites. At that point, it should be obvious that we are wasting our time, money, and efforts trying to reason with puppets in Washington. If there is someone in your state/district willing to stand up for the working class even if that candidate lacks the funding, spend some time helping him or her regardless of the party. I have done it and I don't regret it even if none of them have made it to Congress yet. I know some people will think that this is a losing strategy but let me ask you this. Why do you want to keep paying pols to do their dirty laundry when they should be doing the job you paid for what you want them to do?