Congressman McGovern urges US to quit Afghanistan war

[laststeamtrain]

Oct 7, 2009

Congressman McGovern urges US to quit Afghanistan war

By John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

BOSTON — When U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern stopped at the Worcester Senior Center Monday, he expected a lot of questions about national health care reform.

Instead, the Worcester Democrat said, “Most of the questions I got were about Afghanistan, not health care. The question is why are we sending more troops and when will it end?”

The seniors were hitting on a question Mr. McGovern has spent much of the last two months trying to square and which President Barack Obama is weighing as doubts about the U.S. mission have grown amid the rapidly rising casualties and a request for a military surge to combat escalating Taliban guerilla warfare.

Mr. McGovern traveled to the war zones on a fact-finding trip in August and was in Afghanistan during the closely watched election now being widely criticized as fraudulent. Since his return, Mr. McGovern has been lining up opposition in the House to any move to increase U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

He has gotten 57 members of Congress to sign on to a letter to President Barack Obama opposing an increase in troops requested by the U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, including Massachusetts Reps. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and Michael Capuano, D-Somerville.

<snip>

The opposition letter predicts “a prolonged counterinsurgency war that could last ten years or more, involve hundreds of thousands of troops and impose huge financial costs on taxpayers.” It was delivered to the White House last week.

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http://www.telegram.com/article/20091007/NEWS/910070419/1116

[laststeamtrain]

1. ...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. The opposition to the war is growing. And, it's getting more vocal.

Some politicians are now beginning to speak out against the idiocy. Obama and the generals are looking for a way out that doesn't include admitting that the war is lost so they are trying to continue it long enough to avoid the bad PR of "cut and run".

Also, opposition to wasting more lives is growing in the NATO allies who are withdrawing, or contemplating withdrawal of, support for America's lost war.

It's just a matter of time before we're too broke, too tired, or too disgusted, to continue to play at being the "World's Greatest Superpower".

[slipslidingaway]

3. knr nt