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US Approves $33bn for Afghanistan Troop Increase
The US House of Representatives has approved funds to pay for President Barack Obama's Afghanistan troop increase despite growing unhappiness with the war among his fellow Democrats.
The House's Democratic leaders, who had procrastinated for weeks over the bill, did not act in time to get the $33 billion to the troops by July 4 as the Pentagon had requested.
US soldiers in Kandahar City on June 9, 2010. The last two weeks have thrown an especially harsh light on the war effort, with new reports of corruption in President Hamid Karzai's government, and a change in the commander of US forces and multinational forces in Afghanistan. (AFP/Ed Jones) They added billions of dollars in non-military spending before passing the bill, so the measure must now return to the Senate. It passed the troop funds and its own set of disaster relief add-ons in May.
Both chambers must agree to the same legislation before it can go to Mr Obama for his signature into law. But the Senate is not in session again until July 12, and it is unclear how it will view the additions the House has made.
Pentagon chief Robert Gates said recently the money for 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan should be approved by July 4 to avoid the Pentagon having to juggle accounts and possibly lay off civilians while continuing war operations.
Still, it seemed a wonder the new money for the unpopular war got through the House at all, after long arguments among Democratic lawmakers over whether and how to do it. They set up a complicated series of votes in which the non-military spending passed 239-182, while the part that included the war funding passed 215-210.
"I do not believe this war is anything but a fool's errand. If I had my way, I would never bring this to the floor," declared House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, who is in charge of spending legislation in the chamber.
The last two weeks have thrown an especially harsh light on the war effort, with new reports of corruption in President Hamid Karzai's government, and a change in the commander of US forces and multinational forces in Afghanistan.
The House-approved bill includes nearly $4 billion for the State Department to fund a civilian "surge," bringing economic aid to Afghanistan and its neighboor, Pakistan. The new money is in addition to about $130 billion Congress has already approved for Afghanistan and Iraq this year.
35 Comments so far
Show AllGee, that didn't take long and they're still "struggling" on education?
The Democrats are the piss that "sets" the cloth
The Romans built dye shops with vats outside that served as free public toilets. Not only did they act as your basic "rest area" for passersby, but the urine was used to "set" cloth that had been recently dyed - the same way that vinegar is sometimes used today with natural dyes.
So too the Democratic Party. Since FDR, the move of the Democratic Party toward Social Democracy was stillborn; a casualty of McCarthyism which was as much a Democratic Party invention as it was anyone else's. The old coalition, such as it was, essentially fell apart under Kennedy and LBJ. Since Nixon, the "modern" form of the two party system has emerged.
Each Republican president dyes the political fabric a deeper shade of reactionary brown, and each succeeding Democratic president pisses on the new shade to set the color. Thus with Carter, Clinton, and now, Obama.
All of it is maintained through the ambiguity of middle-classdom and the rest, but people can be forgiven for thinking that the shirts are increasingly brown, all talk not withstanding, and that the whole scheme reeks of piss.
Of course the Romans used various scents to mask the process. Our assholes call it the smell of success and don't even bother with perfumes.
And so it goes until the HomeLanders wake from their dull torpor and scream Basta! in the streets of every town.
very good analogy mcoyote. i am more likely to say the dims and repugs are like 2 bowls of shit the only difference is which one smells worse. thats why people are always holding their noses when they vote. lots of smelly shit around and people are stupid enough to vote for these assholes.
support the green party.
matt
Excellent analogy, MCOYOTE.
And MATHEW, I'm right with you on the Green Party.
9 years of war mongering and fear mongering, lies ,WMDs , the patriot act and 2 trillion dollars.... 6000 troops lives 80000 wounded and injured, 600000 Iraqi men women and children dead, 3 million Iraqi displaced, no peace in Iraq, violence increase in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Two countrys with infrastructure collapse, one we destroyed.
Our country has been hijacked by greedy right wing neocon bull shit artists and coward democrats.
AND WE PAY THE BILLS.
Our free press must change or be fired, mainstream TV media the same.
billions for war not one cent for the unemployed
new motto of the USA
the dems should have tied war funding to the unemployment extinctions
mater of fact ALL war funding and the bloated defense
budget should be tied to social program funding
to force the repubs to hold there noses and vote for social programs
anybody else notice that this news had to come from the UK rather than our own media ?
We're spending BILLIONS on this fool's errand in Afghanistan while our Congress threatens cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Unemployment insurance!!!
What's wrong with this picture!?!?!?!?!
Congress needs to WAKE UP and start putting funds where they're neded by the American population. STOP THE FAUX WAR and get busy attending to the needs of their own citizens.
ALL OF THEM SHOULD BE REPLACED!!!! Hurry next election!!!!
Good points.
M$M refuses to connect increased war spending with domestic spending cuts and rarely states how much these wars are costing us in total, while putting it in perspective. Yes, I'm looking forward to voting for any non-Democrat/Republican in the coming elections.
What makes us continue to believe in the illusion of democracy? Votes don't count. Even millions of people protesting in the streets don't count.
Look out Pakistan, here comes American "aid"...
...while the part that included the war funding passed 215-210
---------------
Isn't it odd that they ALWAYS find just enough votes to pass war funding?
And what about the "deficit hawks" we hear so much about on the t.v. these days who insist senior citizens must prepare for homelessness via cuts to social security because nothing matters more than paying down our debt?
Why aren't those same t.v. newspeople sticking a microphone in the deficit hawks' faces and asking them how we can afford $33 billion to throw down the Afghanistan rat-hole?
You won't see or hear anything of the nature because that's off script. Our newspeople NEVER dare to go off their carefully prepared script.
You can expect that after the funding clears the Senate the talk will immediately return to deficit hawkery as if the war funding never happened. That's what they call in the t.v. business a sharp EDIT.
It is still working for the Democrats, so why would they change, eh? Just enough votes. The dems that are in vulnerable anti-war areas can say "we tried". And the war ocmpanies still get their money. In other countries it doesn't work like that. You are either in the government or you are not. If you object to policy, you leave the government party and try to bring the government down. It gives voters a choice. Do they want to vote for the pro-war party or the anti-war party. All Americans have, is a mixed up soup where all politicians can claim that they "really wanted" to end the war, but "it was the other guy".
Fire up the printing press. One day they talk about the huge debt we are under and the next day they throw money around like it grows on trees or I should say prints on the printer. Surreal.
This $33,000,000,000 is borrowed money. In 1795, Immanual Kant argued that peace requires that national debts should not not be contracted for purposes of war, since that creates an inexhaustible war treasury, which will inevitably lead to default and bankruptcy. Kant was pretty smart. He was right about the inexhaustible war treasury. He is probably right about the coming default and bankruptcy.
I love the articles understatement...."growing unhappiness with the war".....as if it's a TV show that jumped the shark long ago but all normal people but them failed to realize it and they're now running out of popcorn and have an itchy ass from sitting down for so long.
Every obnoxious (military spending or other) bill goes through the same cycle: Rumors of the proposed bill, revealing of the bill, various rumors and quotations about possible Congressional reaction against the bill, public reaction against the bill, passing of the bill. No-one is surprised here. Hollywood or Kabuki, we always know how it will end.
Don't send a penny to these traitors. Besides you're gonna need it.
Forget voting. I'd like to see the unemployment line of greedy, rejected Dems fighting for a place on K Street.
Per Firedoglake:
"FDL has learned that in a last minute move, Nancy Pelosi sneaked language into the rule that the House is voting on tonight regarding war funding.
Embedded in the rule is the requirement that the House will vote on the deficit commissions’s recommendations in the lame duck session if they pass the Senate.
Pelosi knows full well what the committee wants to do. The fix is in.
Happening on CSPAN now.
Pelosi’s office number: (202) 225-4965 "
Watch them blame Republicans for gutting SS. To listen to Obama and the Dems, you'd think they were the minority party. Too bad the media hammers away at the divide and conquer bullshit. Pity they ignore the huge Dem majority in the House and Senate.
If anything, Obama and the Dems must be forced to own up to serving Peterson and his Bilderberg Boy's Deficit Commission.
David Obey sez: ""I do not believe this war is anything but a fool's errand."
***
Interesting.
I do not believe this fool's errand is a war.
So, let me see. The senate will pass it by a 99 - 0 vote before 5 seconds has passed once is gets in the senate. Which surely that has happened by now. If not surely o will call congress back and ensure the patriotic vote before the grand and glorious july 4 a day of despair for most and drunken revelry for the crooks of the MICC.
They sure do spend A LOT of money in Afghanistan to fight the 100 "al qeada" members they estimate to be there.
More great news eh? Billions more to add to the 5 trillion dollar imperial invasions/occupations. Trillions for the Banksters.
Infrastructure? Jobs? Education? Heatlh Care?
Sorry, can't afford that. Don't like it? Too bad, what are you going to do about it?
But one must at least recognize that the MIC and the Banksters get a great return on their investment from bribing, er, I mean lobbying Congress. Helluva job!
it's the pipeline, stupid
The elites and their bought servants, the congress, are formulating a perfect storm of collapse. Unrestrained military spending is just one element. Expect nothing less and prepare for the worst. It is upon us.
Congress, a club of primarily rich old white male psychokillers.
The death drive reigns supreme in that body. Therein resides neither eros, nor life, nor joy, just endless drab predation, murder, and savaging of other peoples and their lands.
My Short List for bullshit terror debacle
1)SACRIFICE:Poor,unemployed,middle class,no pot to piss in
2)Make out like bandits:Rich,run money train,MIC,Politicians,MSM
I Cannot believe sometimes how the first group can generate so many negative vibrations and such good chances of paying for most any infraction and the second group get away with murder and so much more.So justice is subjective and a joke.Tony
In the Presidential Election campaign of 2008, Senator Obama (Corporate - Britain) kept promising us "change." He just didn't bother to tell us that he was going to make things worse: more corporate, more imperialistic and more tyrannical/Royalist... Heck of a job, Barack.
Well, at least the troops are 'employed' and I am sure that the amount was certainly paid for 'up front' so that it doesn't add to the deficit, heaven forbid. I hope that while Congress is enjoying their little time off that they are stormed by the unemployed in their home districts.
It occurs to me that none of you mentioned the fact that the troops were to be coming home this summer. Now we find that more are going overseas -- and for what? Please, someone tell me what the past ten billion dollars have done for US...
What if they continue this war, which, as someone above has said, we cannot win, what would happen if all you heroic writers and sages organized a movement that would convince every armed services guy to throw down his Good Conduct Medal and QUIT?
Let the guys who WANT this war pay for it with their money and their lives. Very soon we would have peace.
The problem is The Setup (or Matrix, if you prefer a cultural reference). We convince GI Joe/Josie to throw down hir gun and GCM and quit. How do they get food and shelter?
The Setup is run by and for the wealthy few, and the rest of us are just the casual labor pool, wage slaves just as much as any Mexican standing on the corner hoping for a day's poorly-paid hard work. If we don't do the bidding of the owners of The Setup, we sleep in doorways (unless their cops roust us or their killer punks set us afire) and we eat out of dumpsters.
That's a horrible prospect for any thinking person. So if we're going to stop the war by convincing people to quit being IED fodder, we have to have a way for them to live, after.
But The Setup guarantees that we don't control any access to food and shelter (note the laws in many cities against communally feeding the hungry: all part of The Matrix). We don't even control access to our own, usually, since we either rent or pay a mortgage, both of which are conditioned on getting one of the Owners to let us be one of his regular wage slaves.
To solve the problem, we have to take over The Setup, or break it. And to do either one, we have to *organise*. Are we ready yet?
What the past ten billion dollars has done is take much needed capital for job creation away from the American citizens. Moreover, with no end in sight for an end to this travesty, there are no new jobs on the horizon.
Needless to say, the backers of this war on humanity, namely our Congress, are showing no concern whatsoever for the citizens in their own country who are feeling the brunt of this financial meltdown!
Until we demand that members of Congress SLASH THEIR OWN SALARIES as a good faith measure of their concern for our citizens, and begin to actually feel the pain the average citizen is feeling as bills pile up with no means of paying them, nothing is going to change.
We are now being governed by an aristocracy that has no feeling or consideration whatsoever for the average American citizen. They just keep accepting their bribes (lobbying money) from corporations and continue sending our citizens off to a foreign country to die in a "WAR" that has never even been declared!!!
IT MUST END!!!!!!!!!!
What we must demand is that they slash their own throats.
CD: why have you not printed the speech of Representative Tim Johnson?
i remember seeing at one time the american millitary bases in afghanistan strung up along the oil pipelines that originate in the caucasian islamic republics. there was a map showing the details.if that is the case, why would anyone believe that the american forces will ever leave afghanistan with these bases built to protect these pipelins? silly me trying to disbelieve another reason for the americans wars like: the tonkin resolution (the domino effect for vietnam war), the mushroom cloud for the iraq war(or exporting democracy to iraq) the fear of the muslim bomb of pakistan falling in terrorist hands, the israeli rabid dog mentality against iran nuclear activities, and more and more.similarly, a recent report detailing sales of american merchandise in 405 american bases in iraq, as a prelude to americans departing iraq. really, would the americans leave iraq permanently with these bases left there to collect dust. if you believe this, then please believe that i am mother teresa.
Yep. That's the way of the Empire. While the wars rage, the richer get richer and the poor have to resort to eating their own shoes.
Where's the Party of No when you need them, huh? And, yeah, it is a rhetorical question, of course.
I have one question and one only; For those of you who consider yourself "progressives", "liberals" and die hard Democrats, how much more betrayal do you need to understand that the DP and the RP do not differ?
Reality can be a bitch, but she never lies! Denial on the other hand just keeps on fooling us and betraying us!