March 13, 2012

The situation in Afghanistan is a nightmare -- bring the troops home!

The US peace movement UFPJ's Afghanistan Working Group calls for pressure to end the war and supports "a safe and orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan of all members of the Armed Forces and Department of Defense contractor personnel."

Listserve mailing from United for Peace and Justice, 13 March 2012:

"The situation in Afghanistan is a nightmare.  The surge has not worked. As we escalated the war, the insurgency fought harder and grew in numbers. Western troops are seen as foreign occupiers in the Afghan homeland, and now have murdered 16 civilians, including little children, in the middle of the night in Kandahar province. The surge has produced a record number of coalition and Afghan deaths, injuries and lost limbs. The surge has not stopped the momentum of the insurgency; just last year there were over 16,000 IED attacks against U.S. troops – a record number.  And the cost of an average IED is just $30.

Bring our troops home.  Call your member of Congress toll-free at 877-429-0678.

Afghan outrage over Koran burnings and murders is yet another vivid reminder of what has gone very wrong in Afghanistan.  American troops do not speak Afghan languages and are not familiar with Afghan culture.  They are not able to build Afghanistan – that must be done by Afghans, and they can begin as soon as U.S. troops withdraw.  As of March 4, 25% of 2012 coalition troop deaths have come at the hands of Afghan security forces - the very people we are supposedly there to help.       

Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a highly respected military officer, who recently returned from Afghanistan, has written a declassified report detailing the actual state of affairs in Afghanistan.   He states:  “Senior ranking U.S. military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the U.S. Congress and the American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable.  This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan.”

This insanity must end, and quickly.  Going into our 11^th year of war, we know that more time, money, and resources will not change the realities in Afghanistan.   

Along with Lt. Col. Davis, we call on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to conduct an investigation and public hearings into the facts about Afghanistan calling the senior and former generals referred to in Davis’ report to provide their version of events under oath. 

Contact your Member of Congress to co-sponsor H.780, Barbara Lee's bill, which limits funding for the Afghanistan war to providing for the safe and orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan of all members of the Armed Forces and Department of Defense contractor personnel who are in Afghanistan.   Read the text of the bill and see the list of cosponsors.

Click here to send an e-mail to your Member of Congress asking him or her to support H.780 or call their office toll-free at 877-429-0678.  (Thanks to Friends Committee on National Legislation for providing the toll-free number!)  Please report back results to rustiandgael(at)unitedforpeace."

-       UFPJ Afghanistan Working Group