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Message to Obama, Karzai and Congress: Americans and Afghans Need Jobs, Not War
President
Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is in Washington this week to meet with the
Obama administration and Congress about the status of the war. Despite
the platitudes coming from both sides, the conflict is intractable and
there is no military solution. President Karzai is well aware of this,
which is why he is organizing a peace gathering (called a jirga) in
Afghanistan starting on May 20 to set the ground rules for negotiating
with the Taliban and other armed insurgents.
After much pressure by Afghan women, 200 of them have won the right to
be represented at the 1,200-person peace jirga. CODEPINK supports the
jirga as a step in the process of negotiating a settlement and the
reintegration of insurgents while demanding respect for women’s rights.
This is a delicate process that requires the full commitment and energy
from the U.S. government. Instead, our government is focusing on a new
military offensive. The looming June military attack against Kandahar
will undoubtedly lead to the death of more innocent Afghans; it will
lead to the spilling of more of our soldiers’ blood; and it will lead to
more resentment and blowback against us, as we saw in the attempted
Times Square bombing.
Just look at what happened in Marjah, where February's offensive left
locals feeling more negative about NATO forces
than before the operation. Unlike Marjah, Kandahar is one of
Afghanistan’s largest cities and the potential for massive civilian
casualties is frightening. Tribal leaders and the public in Kandahar are
strongly opposed to the forthcoming attack.
We call on
President Obama , the Commander-in-Chief, to call off
the Kandahar offensive and instead focus on peace talks. We need
President Obama to protect us from terrorist attacks here at home, not
wage endless wars overseas.
We call on President
Karzai to promote a reconciliation process that
ensures Afghan women a prominent place at the table and protects
women’s rights. President Karzai should also promote economic policies
that provide jobs for women, especially the over one million war widows
who are desperately trying to care for their children.
We
call on Congress to stop funding the war. Congress has been
asked by the Administration to approve a $33 billion supplemental
request. The money is supposed to pay for the 30,000 additional troops
President Obama ordered to Afghanistan in December and are now starting
to arrive for the offensive. Congress must take a stand and refuse to
fund the war.
We also call on our Congressional
representatives to co-sponsor the McGovern-Feingold
bill (HR 5015, S.3197)
requiring the President to provide a plan and timetable for "the safe,
orderly and expeditious redeployment of US troops from Afghanistan."
There are
presently 82 co-sponsors of this bill. We hope over 100 representatives
will sign on, and the bill will generate a long overdue Congressional
debate about the need to end this war.
We call on the
American people to join us in calling for jobs,
not war. After 9 years of U.S. occupation, Afghanistan remains one of
the poorest countries in the world. They need jobs, not war. The
American people are suffering from the worst economic crisis since the
Great Depression. We need jobs, not war. With just a fraction of the
over $270 billion we have spent on this war (www.costofwar.com),
we could be creating millions of jobs for both Americans and Afghans.
Let’s demand that our leaders put an end to this war and instead protect
us here at home. Let’s tell them our national security includes a good
education system, clean energy, healthcare and putting people to work in
productive jobs that improve the lives of our communities.
- Posted in
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16 Comments so far
Show AllWhy are we in Afghanistan? What do we know that the Soviets and the British didn't know? The Afghans largely see us as foreign occupiers not liberators. YES JOBS NOT WARS.
Military industrial complex needs an enemy to justify its $700,000,000,000 annual budget.
US is fighting an Oil War to secure oil for its oil based economy.
It seems that having our bases in the Middle East and Central Asia fills both of those needs.
I've never been a fan of Code Pink, I've often thought their antics were counterproductive...but this!
Wonderful. Whats not to like in this manifesto? Kudos to the ladies in Pink!!
I've never been a fan and I'm still not.
Nowhere in this is any mention of changing our MO as a war machine--only stopping these wars (but keeping our outposts in place a.k.a. "jobs" for Afgans). We are hated and despised because of our imperial overreach. That is the reason we have this little problem at home called terrorism and fear.
Code Pink is all about the status quo: keeping democrats in power and keeping the strategic plan in place of empire. They talk nothing of honest, real, basic policy change, to a more peaceful and benign nation.
Sorry, but Code Pink = more of the same.
Sham.
I just can't find anything wrong with this attitude. And you do have to start somewhere. This seems adult to me, so I have to give credit where credit is due. Now if they revert to their infantile tactics.......
The democrats have already lost power, in fact its beginning to look as if the republicans are having trouble holding on to the power the democrats are giving back to them. Their establishment is looking less established.
I agree moonpie, because i know from some personal experience and the experience of others i know.
They are a brand, like obama. And they promoted him.
And i am tired of their silly pink outfits and tiaras that they wear whenever i see them at a march, etc.
But, that's my own feeling.
I was in the streets in the worst of times (2003) in San Francisco protesting almost everyday and the only constant at any given time, throwing their bodies on the line relentlessly, staging street protests, organizing, demanding and kicking up shit were the ladies in pink. Armchair shitheads can diss mah girls all they like but they had the balls to stand up to power when the rest of the punks were busy sucking up to the status quo.
Bitching about their attire and passing inane comments about their appearance and tactics is the usual, pathetic response of 'liberals' who wouldnt know what resistance is, if it slapped them in the face.
There was one major and one accessory reason for demanding that Mr. Karzai come to Washington.
The principal reason was to prod him behind closed doors to agree to the "pacification" of Helmand province with its capital of Kandahar. The accessory reason had nothing to do with Afghanistan but was intended to throw sand into the eyes of the American electorate by demanding that "progress" must be made on "honest" governing of Afghanistan which no-one in the Obama administration, including Mr. Pragmatic himself, expects to happen ever.
I have now concluded that Mr. Obama has decided to send small units of Special Operation soldiers but not large army units into Waziristan (N.W. Pakistan) to kill Taliban and Al Qaedas in lightning-quick raids supported by even more drone killings. The "pacification" of Helmand province is therefore urgently necessary to eliminate the possibility of sneak flanking-attacks from this Taliban stronghold on lines of advance and retreat of the Op. units.
Only the Afghans can help the Afghans, but Yankees can be especially useful by getting our soldiers out of their country. Left to themselves, without the imbalances of endless cash and weaponry from the great empires, they'll work things out on their own terms (though it may be a few generations before those machine guns rust away).
As for the U.S., how about getting our rail system going? Seems like there could be as many as 100,000 jobs waiting in that (and it would help keep our soldiers out of the Mideast and Asia -- bonus!).
"...the conflict is intractable and there is no military solution..."
There's the basic problem...thinking there's a "conflict" that needs a "solution". Are we to believe this same conflict/solution existed for the Russians and British too? Bull. There's oil. They wanted it, we want it. Until the project to obtain that oil is complete, we'll be fed the cover story about the Taliban, OBL, the conflict, etc. Even Gibbs is dredging up "it's about 911" again. That's the "tell" (the giveaway) that this isn't at all about 911, Taliban, etc.
Code Pink was a huge backer of Obummer. Did they really think he was going to do all the change and hope that the democrats claimed?
Give up on the democrats. They will never do anything right but rather say they will so people vote for them as the lesser of two evils during election time.
Join the Progressive party or the Green party.
Or, when are country continues killing and maiming people and the environment, and saying yes to WAR and no to jobs, think about and decide if voting for a democrat in the next election is going to do any good?
getoffyourbutt says: "Join the Progressive party or the Green party". You could not have stated the failure by us on the left more succinctly. For us there should not be an "or".
Does anyone else feel that Karzai, upon exit from the Oval Office, will postpone the planned May 20 jirga?
Message received and ignored Code Pink, now what?
FRONT PAGE New York Times , first paragraph of article:
_---------------------
By ALISSA J. RUBIN 9 minutes ago
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — The fate of the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan may well depend on whether Afghans can overcome their corrosive distrust of President Hamid Karzai’s government.
============
now -- what is wrong and left out in that paragraph?
1) the afghans DISTRUST THE UNITES STATES
2) Their "corrosive distrust of ....Karzai's government" -- LEAVES OUT "because he is a TOOL of the UNTRUSTWORTHY USA".
as an afghan farmer said 2 years ago - reflective obviously of afghan attitudes about the US war in their country:
"THE Americans were here before - against the Russians..and then they left our country in ruins....they think we forget...but we know they are here to USE US and our land..but we will make them leave....just like all others before them".
The dissing of Karazai is unconscionable. At this time he should have been invited to an Ivey league college as the commencement speaker and awarded a doctor of letters degree. Instead the administration's insincere welcome is quite obvious. They did not even invite him to be seated next to Mrs. O during the state of the union show.