CPC Report Highlights Key Findings on U.S. Role in Afghanistan and Pakistan Region

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.