Urge a different course in Afghanistan

From Voters for Peace:

[This week] the House of Representatives approved $97 billion dollars in additional funding for wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, including more funding for the unmanned drones and air strikes that are killing civilians. Sixty members of the House of Representatives voted against the funding and 76 members co-sponsored a bill urging an exit strategy from Afghanistan.

We know that more troops and mercenaries will not bring peace and stability to Afghanistan or Pakistan. Unfortunately for each of the last four year the United States has increased the number of troops, the number of aerial bombings, the number of drone attacks and the result is that violence is getting worse and both Afghanistan and Pakistan are less stable.

I am asking you to take action by contacting your representatives in the U.S. Senate. Your calls and emails made a difference in the House. Elected officials are questioning the wisdom of the Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy. The House set some conditions on the war funding that we support, including:

• Re-affirming the ban on permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq;
• Banning permanent U.S. military bases in Afghanistan; and
• Supporting President Obama's due dates for withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by December 31, 2011 (which is not fast enough for us).

President Obama's supplemental devotes only 5% of the Iraq and Afghanistan funds to civilian peace building and 95% to military action. This is the wrong direction and it is going to take the voices of many Americans to change course.

Next week your senators will be considering the war funding supplemental. Please take action to urge your senators to oppose the war supplemental. If your senators aren't willing to vote against new war funding, they should be challenged to reaffirm that the United States will not build permanent bases in Afghanistan or Iraq, to demand an end to the air war, and to insist that Obama articulate an exit strategy from Afghanistan.

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