I remember who sent my son to Iraq and brought him back hurt. I remember who sent my nephew to Iraq and sent him back in a pine box, alone and without respect to show the coffins returning rather than our children safe. I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER BUSH SAYING BIN LADEN WASN’T IMPORTANT WHEN THEY DIDN’T FIND HIM IRAQ. I REMEMBER 5000 DEAD AMERICANS WHO DIED FOR A LIE AND I REMEMBER WHO MADE THE OUTRAGEOUS MONEY FROM THIS WAR. HALLIBURTON AND FUCKING CHENEY
@StartLoving3 Well said, Start. And Just ’cause a right wing tilted supreme court says corporations are persons, doesn’t make it so. I don’t have the patience to engage these teabaggers. It’s pointless; they just parrot the bullshit they’re fed from Fox. They’re the first to suffer under right wing policies, yet they’re the only ones who seem not to understand the mechanics of their undoing.
In the days following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress rushed to provide the Bush administration with the tools to wage a “war on terror.” One piece of legislation, that you can help repeal, remains the law of the land today. Since its passing, it has been used to authorize:
U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan;
extravagant and ineffective spending of tens of billions of tax dollars on so-called intelligence.
That legislation, the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, was signed into law on September 18, 2001. Nine years later, the evidence is in: War is (still) not the answer. Yet, the Obama administration continues to use that congressional authorization to justify drone attacks, and it could provide the legal basis for new wars in the future.
Repealing the Authorization
Congress should repeal this law. Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) has introduced legislation that would do just that. Her bill, H.R. 6282, states:
“Congress finds that the Authorization for Use of Military Force…signed into law on September 18, 2001, has been used to justify a broad and open-ended authorization for the use of military force andsuch an interpretation is inconsistent with the authority of Congress to declare war and make all laws for executing powers vested by the Constitutionin the Government of the United States.”
You can help to persuade 100 members of Congress to cosponsorRep. Lee’s repeal of the authorization for the use of force for the “war on terror.” A hundred cosponsors will increase the chances that the next Congress will act to stop the “endless war.”
Asking your congressperson to cosponsor Rep. Lee’s repeal also provides you with an opening to speak with your representative about why providing the president – any president – with a blank check for war is a bad idea and how the evidence of the past nine years makes a compelling case that war is not the answer.
Take Action
Please urge your representative to cosponsor Barbara Lee’s legislation to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the use of military force.
A Senseless War Begins Its 10th Year …an address to the nation from President Barack Obama (as reported by Michael Moore)
Thursday, October 7th, 2010
My Fellow Americans:
Nine years ago today we invaded the nation of Afghanistan. I’d just turned 40. I had a Discman and an Oldsmobile and had gotten really into LiveJournal. That was a long time ago. It was so long ago, does anybody remember why we’re even there? I think everyone wanted to capture Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. But he got away sometime in the first month or so. He left. We stayed. Looking back now, that makes no sense.
Needing to find a new reason for the mission, we decided to overthrow the religious extremists who were running Afghanistan. Which we did. Sorta. Unlike Osama, they never left. Why not? Well, they were Afghans, it was their country. And, strangely enough, a lot of other Afghans supported them. To this day, the Taliban only have 25,000 armed fighters. Do you really think an army that tiny could control and suppress a nation of 28 million against their will? What’s wrong with this picture? WTF is really going on here?
The truth is, I can’t get an answer. My generals can’t quite tell me what our mission is. If we went in there to rout out al-Qaeda, well, they’re gone too. The CIA tells me there are
50 to 100 al-Qaeda in Afganistan!
My generals have also admitted the following to me:
1. There is no way we can defeat the Taliban. They enjoy too much popular support in the rural areas, the majority of the country.
2. Even though we’ve been there nine years, the truth is the Taliban, not us, not the Afghan government, control the country. After nine years, we’ve only completely run the Taliban out of 3% of Afghanistan.
3%!! (Just for reference, it took us only ELEVEN MONTHS after D-Day to entirely defeat the Nazis across all of Europe.)
3. Our troops and their commanders are still trying to learn the language, the culture, the customs of Afghanistan. The fact is, our troops are simply not trusted by the average people (especially after they’ve killed numerous civilians, either through recklessness or for sport).
4. The Afghan government we installed is corrupt beyond belief. The public does not trust them. President Karzai is on anti-depressants and our advisors tell us he is erratic and loopy on many days. His brother has a friendly relationship with the Taliban and is believed to be a major poppy (heroin) dealer. Heroin poppies are the #1 contributor to the Afghan economy.
The war in Afghanistan is a mess. The insurgency grows — and why wouldn’t it: foreign troops have invaded and occupied their country! The people responsible for 9/11 are no longer there. So why are we? Why are we offering up the lives of our sons and daughters every single day — for no reason anyone can define.
In fact, the only reason I can see is that this war is putting billions of profits into the pockets of defense contractors. Is that a reason to stay, so Halliburton can post a larger profit this quarter?
It is time for me to bring our troops home — right now. Not one more American needs to die. Their deaths do not make us safer and they do not bring democracy to Afghanistan.
It is not our mission to defeat the Taliban. That is the job of the Afghan people — if that is what they choose to do. There are many groups and leaders of countries in this world who are despicable. We are not going to invade 30 countries and remove their regimes. That is not our job.
I am not going to stay in Afghanistan just because we’re already there and we haven’t “won” yet. There is nothing to win. No one from Genghis Khan to Leonid Brezhnev has been able to win there. So the troops are coming home.
I refuse to participate in scaring the American people with a phony “War on Terror.” Are there terrorists? Yes. Will they strike again? Sadly, yes. But these terrorist acts are few and far between and should not dictate how we live our daily lives or make us ignore our constitutional rights. They should never distract us from what our real priorities are in making our country safe and secure: Everyone with a good job, families able to own a home and send their kids to college, universal health care that’s coordinated by your elected representative government — not by greedy, profit-hungry insurance companies. THAT would be true homeland security.
And what about Osama bin Laden? Nine years and we can’t find a 6’5″ Arab man who apparently is on dialysis? Even after offering $25 million to anyone who will tell us where he is? You don’t think someone would have taken us up on that by now?
Here’s what I know: Osama bin Laden is a multi-millionaire — and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the rich is that they don’t live in caves for 9 years. Bin Laden is either dead or hiding out in a place where his money protects him. Or maybe he just went home.
Just like we should do. Now. My condolences to the families of all who died in this war. Most of them signed up after 9/11 and wanted to do their duty because we were attacked. But we were not attacked by a country. We were attacked by a few religious extremists. And you don’t defeat a few thugs by shipping halfway around the world thousands of armored vehicles and hundreds of thousands of soldiers. That is just sheer idiocy.
In the days following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress rushed to provide the Bush administration with the tools to wage a “war on terror.” One piece of legislation, that you can help repeal, remains the law of the land today. Since its passing, it has been used to authorize:
U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan;
extravagant and ineffective spending of tens of billions of tax dollars on so-called intelligence.
That legislation, the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, was signed into law on September 18, 2001. Nine years later, the evidence is in: War is (still) not the answer. Yet, the Obama administration continues to use that congressional authorization to justify drone attacks, and it could provide the legal basis for new wars in the future.
Repealing the Authorization
Congress should repeal this law. Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) has introduced legislation that would do just that. Her bill, H.R. 6282, states:
“Congress finds that the Authorization for Use of Military Force…signed into law on September 18, 2001, has been used to justify a broad and open-ended authorization for the use of military force andsuch an interpretation is inconsistent with the authority of Congress to declare war and make all laws for executing powers vested by the Constitutionin the Government of the United States.”
You can help to persuade 100 members of Congress to cosponsorRep. Lee’s repeal of the authorization for the use of force for the “war on terror.” A hundred cosponsors will increase the chances that the next Congress will act to stop the “endless war.”
Asking your congressperson to cosponsor Rep. Lee’s repeal also provides you with an opening to speak with your representative about why providing the president – any president – with a blank check for war is a bad idea and how the evidence of the past nine years makes a compelling case that war is not the answer.
Take Action
Please urge your representative to cosponsor Barbara Lee’s legislation to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the use of military force.
