Feingold, McGovern, Jones Introduce Bill to End the War in Afghanistan

Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold, Representative Jim McGovern, and
Representative Walter Jones announced
the introduction of legislation that - if it attracts enough support -
could end the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan, and bring the
troops home.

The key idea of the bill is straightforward. By January 1 - or within
3 months of the enactment of the bill, if that is earlier - the
President is required to submit to Congress a plan for the
redeployment of the U.S. military from Afghanistan, with a timetable
for doing so. After submitting the plan, the President has to update
Congress every 90 days on how the implementation of the plan is going.

The bill allows Members of Congress to sign their names in favor of
the all-important policy of having a timetable for military
withdrawal, without everyone having to agree on a specific proposal
for what the end date should be. Instead, it instructs President Obama
to tell us what he thinks the plan should be.

The importance of establishing a timetable for military withdrawal
cannot be overstated.

If you want to figure out how we are going to get the hell out of
Afghanistan, the most obvious precedent to look at is: how are we
getting the hell out of Iraq? And the answer is: with a timetable for
military withdrawal, which is now the basis of a signed agreement
between the U.S. and Iraqi governments.

U.S. officials have repeatedly conceded that the endgame in
Afghanistan includes a negotiated political settlement between the
Afghan government and the main insurgent groups in Afghanistan. Such a
settlement will only be possible if it is supported by the United
States, and the key chip that only the United States can bring to the
negotiating table is willingness to agree to a timetable for military
withdrawal. So long as the United States refuses to agree to a
timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces, a political solution is
almost surely impossible. As soon as the United States is willing to
agree to a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, a political
solution is increasingly likely.

The adoption by the United States of a timetable for withdrawal - even
a signal that the United States is willing to adopt a timetable for
withdrawal, even a signal that a decisive body of opinion in official
Washington is supporting a timetable for withdrawal - is likely to
have dramatic political effects in Afghanistan, just as these things
had dramatic political effects in Iraq. In 2007, Congress never
succeeded legislatively in writing a military withdrawal timetable
into U.S. law. But the fact that the majority of the House and Senate
went on the record in favor of a timetable had dramatic effects in
Iraq. It put pressure the Bush Administration to compromise its
objectives, to start serious negotiations with people it had
previously been trying to kill. It sent a strong signal to Iraqi
political actors that the U.S. was leaving, and it was time to focus
on where you wanted to be when the music stopped.

At the beginning of May, the Afghan government is convening a "peace
jirga" to try to build a national political consensus for a peace
agreement to end the Afghan civil war. That process is a thousand
times more likely to succeed if it is supported by the United States,
and the most important thing that Washington can do to help that
process succeed is signal its willingness to adopt a timetable for
military withdrawal. The Feingold-McGovern-Jones bill - if it attracts
wide support in Congress and the country - could therefore be a key
step to peace in Afghanistan.

The bill's text can be read here and you can
ask your representatives in Congress to co-sponsor it here.