CPC Report Highlights Key Findings on Role in Middle East

With the Fiscal Year 2009 War Supplemental Appropriations Bill debate on the
Floor of the House this week, today, Congressman Raul M. Grijalva, Co-Chair of
the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), along with fellow CPC Member, Rep.
Mike Honda (D-CA), issued a report summarizing the key findings, concerns and
recommendations that have emerged from the CPC's six-part series "Afghanistan:
A Road Map For Progress".

After
listening to testimony and engaging in dialogue with some of the world's
leading experts on security issues in the regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan,
Reps. Grijalva and Honda have produced a report, which represents both a
summation of their panelists' key concerns, as well as recommendations for
consideration by the Progressive Caucus.

"This
report highlights the issues concerning our involvement in the region,"
said CPC Co-Chair Raul M. Grijalva, (D-AZ). "These discussions have shed light
on what's stake and what must happen in the near future. We must work to find
solutions for our national security, as well as a global one."

Attached,
please find Reps. Grijalva and Honda's letter to members of the Progressive
Caucus, as well as their summary of key concerns and findings that emerged from
the Afghanistan forums.

Background:

"Afghanistan:
A Road Map For Progress" was the first of many policy conversations that
will occur as part of the CPC's Seeking Global Security project, a
project that allows policy makers to examine what constitutes real national
security for America, on a variety of security issues, with input from some of
the world's leading experts on these issues.

"Afghanistan:
A Road Map For Progress" covered the following topics: Afghanistan's
History/Culture/Peoples; Defining America's Strategic Interests; Role of the
Military; Comprehensive Strategy for Afghanistan; US Foreign Policy vis-a-vis
Pakistan; and International Diplomatic Strategies.

Experts
ranged from Colonel Wilkerson (Colin Powell's former chief of staff), General
Paul Eaton (commander of Iraq's security forces), Hekmat Karzai (director of
Kabul's peace and security centre), Ambassador Dobbins(President Bush's special
rep to Afghanistan) and Ambassador Akbar Ahmed (the UK's High Commissioner to
Pakistan), among others.

Please
visit https://cpc.grijalva.house.gov
for more information.