The House is expected to vote today, Thursday, on an amendment pushed by Representatives Peter Welch (D – VT) and Jason Chaffetz (R – UT) that would demand that President Obama end the war in Afghanistan. The bill would amend a massive defense spending bill to demand the end of the conflict. Representatives Welch and Chaffetz are expected to draw considerable bipartisan support for ending the war in the face of soaring costs and human lives.
While the resolution is unlikely to pass, the votes expected Thursday were certain to provide a measure of the congressional opposition to the war. These are numbers that won't go unnoticed at the Pentagon and White House.
The AP reports...
Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, it's time to end the war in Afghanistan and bring U.S. troops home, several House Republicans and Democrats demanded on Wednesday.
President Barack Obama will begin drawing down some of the 100,000 troops in Afghanistan in July, with all combat forces due out by 2014. But that timetable is unacceptable to a growing number of war-weary lawmakers, who argue that the death of the al-Qaida leader is an opportunity for the United States to recalibrate its strategy.
"The successful mission that located and killed Osama bin Laden has raised many questions about the effectiveness of America's strategy to combat terrorism through a now 10-year-old nation-building effort in a deeply corrupt Afghanistan, especially in light of the serious fiscal challenges we face at home," Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., wrote in a letter to colleagues on Wednesday.
They said it would be more effective to use "a targeted, worldwide counter-terrorism strategy similar to the intelligence and special operations mission that located and killed bin Laden in Pakistan earlier this month."
Chaffetz and Welch planned to offer an amendment to the defense bill for withdrawing ground troops from Afghanistan. A group of eight Republicans and Democrats were pushing another measure to accelerate the transition from U.S. to Afghan control of operations.
Osama is dead, some Democrats and Republicans want to bring the troops home and Americans want to end the war by a 3 to 1 ratio. I say it's time to end the wars and bring ALL the troops home.
I just hope that one day soon, Congress will have the courage to do what these brave men and women of our military are speaking out about...