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Out of Afghanistan Caucus Calls for NO VOTE on War Funding
With a vote scheduled tonight on the $33 billion supplemental for the Afghan war, members of the Out of Afghanistan Caucus held a press conference today, July 1 to express their opposition to the war funding. The Caucus, chaired by Congressman John Conyers, is an informal group of 21 members dedicated to reorienting US policy towards diplomacy and the swift redeployment of the US military.
Speaking at the press conference were Rep. John Conyers, Bob Filner, Alan Grayson, Barbara Lee, Judy Chu, Sheila Jackson Lee and Mike Honda. Cong. Maxine Waters arrived late and didn’t get a chance to speak.
The congresspeople addressed the hypocrisy of the fiscal conservatives in Congress who are concerned about the out-of-control deficit but support the war supplemental. Cong. Conyers labelled his Out of Afghanistan group the “fiscally-conservative doves” and called on fiscal conservatives of all political stripes to vote against the war supplemental. Cong. Honda complained that the administration said last year would be the last time the war budget was presented as a supplemental, outside the normal budget, but then the administration turned around and requested another supplemental. “Supplementals are always deficit spending and if fiscal conservatives are serious, they must vote against this,” Honda said.
Congressman Filner, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, painted a grim picture of the cost of the war for U.S. soldiers. While the official figures talk about 5,000 dead and 45,000 wounded, he said the true cost was exponentially higher. “Close to one million soldiers have visited VA hospitals for war-related injuries. Hundreds of thousands have brain injuries or PTSD,” he said. “We can’t keep this up. It’s time to bring our children home.”
Congresswoman Chu said that Congress was first told by Secretary Gates that we needed 2,500 more soldiers in Afghanistan, then Admiral Mullen called for 20,000 more, then McChrystal said 30,000 more. “What is the correct number of troops we need in Afghanistan?”, she asked. “Zero. More troops just means more trouble.”
Congressman Nadler said we had every right to target bases where people were plotting against to attack us, but not to make war against those countries. “We have no business intervening in an Afghan civil war,” he said. “It’s a fool’s errand. If the Afghan soldiers don’t have the will and motivation to fight the Taliban, we can’t instill that in them. And without the will and motivation, there’s no winning.”
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee related the war funding to the BP disaster. “We have a crisis of tsunami proportions in our own Gulf with the BP disaster that will require billions, perhaps trillions, of dollars. We need our resources to fight this war at home,” she said.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee talked about her amendment to strike war funding from the Supplemental, and the hopes that her amendment will be voted on tonight. The other anti-war amendment is the one presented by Cong. Jim McGovern, which calls for a detailed withdrawal plan and has 100 co-sponsors.
Before the vote tonight, we need an all-out push for more no votes. The following list of “liberal Democrats” must be pressured to vote no: Yvette Clarke, Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, Jerry Costello, Barney Frank, Luis Gutierrez, Jay Inslee, Steve Kagen, John Lewis, Edward Markey, Doris Matsui, Jim McDermott, George Miller, Grace Napolitano, Richard Neal, James Oberstar, Jan Schakowsky, Mike Thompson, Edolphus Towns, Nydia Velázquez, and Anthony Weiner.
While Afghanistan Caucus members spoke passionately today about ending the war, unfortunately they, and the anti-war movement, don’t have the clout to stop this round of war funding. Even though the majority of Americans now oppose the war, the majority in Congress will probably still vote for it. While we must make every effort possible today to get more anti-war votes, we have to build a stronger movement if we are really serious about ending this war!
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13 Comments so far
Show AllAfter reading this came to mind:
Weapons,
Not food,
Not clothes,
Not shoes,
Not need;
Just feed tha war
Cannibal animal
I walk the corner to the rubble
That used to be a library
Line up to the mind's cemetary now
What we don't know keeps the contract's alive and movin:
They don't gotta burn the books,
They just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the [prison] cells
(1996 Z. De La Rocha) from "Bulls on Parade" Rage Against The Machine "Evil Empire" album.
Even if your Representative is not on the above list, call them as well. These insane wars are based on big lies, and waste money and good peoples lives.
Stop oil addictions
Stop BP, Exxon, and S(hell)
Clean energy now
No more stupid war!
Got evicted from my pad of two decades in June -- counting on
Fed UI bennies extension which fails because of missing guy who is prolly
more awake as a dead person than the rest are living --
group of Dickens' characters voting against have
never missed a meal in their lives -
the average political Afghani lives in moderate
terror of possible U.S. drone strike...conducted out of Las Vegas of all places --
rest of population works with
whatever person or persons can nail down a ten-pound bag of rice for them --
for this we are investing a trillion-dollar-plus killing machine
and some gullible young blood
how sick...how perfectly sick --
Marley's (christmas carol) ghost rages --
as might senator Byrd
I don't usually cross-post, but this seems appropriate here, also.
I would say a "partisan" or a "freedom fighter" is a person who is intent on ridding his country of an invader or an occupier.
An insurgent is a person who is struggling against his own "legal" government. If his "legal" government has been destroyed or disbanded, then he is not an insurgent, he is a freedom fighter (see above)
The United States has adopted a position that anyone who objects to invasion or occupation of his country by us is automatically a terrorist or an insurgent and it declares open season on them, their families and associates.
This will probably come to pass here in the US, too, when there are a hundred million or so trying to exist, homeless, hungry, sick, living under cardboard in alleys.
The Corporatocracy that controls us will no doubt see that those who rise up to take the nation back from these thugs and their lackeys will be classified as insurgents, homegrown terrorists, criminals. Even as the signers of the Declaration of Independence were declared traitors to the crown, we will be identified as traitors for trying to restore our country.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Now that fascism has become fully entrenched in this country, to the point of being allowed to bribe in the open to get their way, I'm sure that We the People will get short shrift, should we actually organize enough to cause the establishment some concern.
Eventually, this government will collapse from its own dry rot, when it finds itself overextended enough to really cause problems. How many hundreds of thousands or millions are going to die before this process is complete is horrifying to contemplate, but it may well be the cost of returning freedom to We the People, and perhaps to the world at large.
You should read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights carefully. It should be taught in schools as it used to be, many years ago, so those coming up today will know what they are losing, or have perhaps lost.
Diplomacy is sitting across the table, working out problems peacefully, not at gun point. Empathy is the process of putting yourself in another's shoes, to truly understand his viewpoint, feel his pain, or his joy. Sadly, we have lost both of these skills, substituting brute force, firepower and dogma for them.
I sometimes wonder if all these foreign wars are not just a training ground for our government and military, to learn how to suppress us, if we finally object to being serfs and cannon fodder in a fascist empire.
As to war funding; in a bought and paid for Congress I don't know if there will ever be enough opposition to go against the profits of the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex, (MICC) but we've got to keep trying.
I probable don't have the hair to do it, but today I was figuring my next car sign will include: Warning: Terrorist Sympathizer. What a bunch of BS, an argument from liberals that doesn't include the transfer of US military bases from Saudi Arabia to Iraq for political convenience. A convenience that hasn't worked out as, oh golly, Arabs (besides royal families, and oil lobbyists) don't like foreign soldiers on the Arab Peninsula.
"The congresspeople addressed the hypocrisy of the fiscal conservatives in Congress who are concerned about the out-of-control deficit but support the war supplemental."
Aren't 99% of congrusspeeple guilty of writing an endless stream of blank checks for war for over nine years?
Aren't 99% of congrusspeeple guilty of caving in to the healthcare racketeers, the finance racketeers, the auto racketeers and the petro-racketeers past couple of years?
Aren't 99% of congrusspeeple guilty of supporting one or the other elitist/corporatist candidate for the oval orifice?
Aren't 99% of congrusspeeple guilty of accepting campaign donations from the elitist/corporatist camps?
So who's addressing hypocrisy?
(was suppose to be a reply to dingle berry)
"Moderate terror"?
A group of 12 year old boys and girls playing soccer scatter each time a drone flys by...is that conditioned response moderate?
Of course I get your drift with the raging ghosts and the perfectly sick. I mean when did an ethical or moral argument about the trillion dollar plus war machine become a political liability even for the most liberal of representative?
The biggest problem isn't oil addiction as the dingle berry brings up, it's the denial of how the oil rights are attained and how the oil is distributed. To call for clean energy or oil independence over this situation are political obfuscations like MoveOn's Support The Troops (instead of impeachment) BS. I read somewhere where a third of all oil usage is now for the maintenance of the military pursuits -- how absurd! Where is human dignity to be found...I look in the mirror and there's not even much of it there.
*******
First there was collateral damage...now what's the peace prize winner's...Judicious Killing? Human dignity...come out come out where ever you are....
A holiday is coming up which celebrates the United States kicking out the occupying army back in the 18th century. One wonders how long it will be, if ever, that the freedom fighters of Afghanistan can also celebrate kicking out the occupiers of their country which in this case happens to be the United States of America along with their NATO allies.
(In The Spirit Of '76)
Down with Empire-USA
Afghanistan?
for the Afghans
Iraq?
for the Iraqis
America?
up for grabs
Screw calling them and screw Conyers and his little band
that is a little too late.
Where was Barbara Lee and Conyers last year?
I admit, both of them used to be my favorite, but they
knew Barrack Obama much better than I, and I had enough sense
to know exactly what was going to happen two years before he
became president, I called, and called his campaign head
quarters in 2007 looking hard for an exuse to vote for him
and I couldn't find one so didn't and had a write in.
I called and faxed Capitol Hill so much in 2007 and 2008
that they finally had AT&T cut my long distance. I and others
leaned and leaned on them to end war and they shot their
finger right back at us....
Conyers, Barbara Lee, the one I never did like S.J. Lee,
and others knew damn well what Obama would bring, so to see
Conyers get on Democracy Now, a spew his stuff , turns my
stomach so, Because no it is popular to be against this war
and elections are coming so now the politicians are coming
out of the woodwork against wars that are going to be funded
any god damn way and they know it, they are only concerned
in making a showing to the dumbass American public so the
public will believe once again that the Democrats have a
progressive wing worth supporting.......
Ask Conyers............he knows me damn well now..........
But since I am tired of it, let me tell you how to get on
their nerves....don't use email,,,,,,use fax and send them
fax after fax.......I used to send 50 to a 100 a day, the
phone lines are never busy since their fax lines are usually
only used for official government business....
get your C-Span directory...
then on your voice phone calls....don't call during working
hours or when congress is in break
call after hours and fill up their voice mail boxes with
messeges..one after another until their mailbox is filled up
Don't be polite , rule # 1
don't address them as The Honorable.....they are anything but
be rude to them...tell them how you feel...directly even if
it means a fowl word here and there.
Here is Conyers fax # (202) 225-0072 (be somewhat nice to him) Bob Filner does not give a rat's ass about veterans,
I know this personally....be mean to him, he is just looking
to get re-elected, he always votes for war funding be mean
spirited to him..fax (202) 225-9073...be rude to him.
Markey (202) 226-0092 be rude to him.....fax him...mean
Barney Frank (202) 225-1082.....you know what to do to him!!!
anyway get ur numbers and bother them all,,,all day long
a parting shot Pelosi fax (202) 225-8259 ....be really, really, really, rude, real rude to her, mean, like you are
spitting in her eye.....mean spirited...nasty, because that
is exactly what she is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
they are all murderers, thieves, liars, cheaters, and tramps.
Common Dreams seems to have forgotten the Iran front for a while, and it seems to be hotting up.
http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan07012010.html
"... Shabtai Shavit, former chief of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, speaking June 21 at Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv on why Israel should launch a pre-emptive strike at Iran: “I am of the opinion that, since there is an ongoing war, since the threat is permanent, since the intention of the enemy in this case is to annihilate you, the right doctrine is one of presumption and not retaliation.”
...
"The Gulf Daily News reported June 26 that Israel has moved warplanes to Georgia and Azerbaijan, which would greatly shorten the distance Israeli planes would have to fly to attack targets in northern Iran. The U.S currently has two aircraft carriers—the Truman and the Eisenhower—plus more than a dozen support vessels in the Gulf of Hormuz, the strategic choke point leading into the Gulf of Iran."
I heard that comment, too, and have no doubt that Israel is itching to launch a military assault on its "enemy," Iran, on the assumption that Iran is developing nuclear weapons (unproven and unprovable and unlikely) in order to attack Israel with them (Iran has not attacked another country for hundreds of years). And why would Iran thus ASSURE retaliation from both Israel and the U.S. that would wipe it and its ages-old culture off the map?
One theory floating around is that the U.S. is pushing ever-tougher sanctions in hopes of at least delaying an Israeli attack. But, of course, there are no plans to end the military support of Israel that would make such an attack possible.