Supplemental Talking Points
Americans voted for change -- and change does not include more wasted taxpayer money, more dead soldiers and civilians, and no sign of progress in Afghanistan.
Congress must reject the $94.2 billion supplemental for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a supplemental that will further destabilize the Middle East and Central Asia, threaten worldwide security and drain billions of taxpayer dollars at a time of sky-high unemployment and economic crisis.
This week, based on a series of hearings over the past several weeks with U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani military advisers, the Congressional Progressive Caucus released its conclusions that the supplemental "exacerbates" failed strategies by funding predominately military ($84 billion) action with only $10 billion for economic development, institution building, local community funding and skills training.
The supplemental clearly recycles failed Bush administration policies.
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It will fund efforts that only fuel the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and further alienate Afghans who increasingly view the U.S. as an occupying force.
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It will fund more civilian deaths -- a United Nations report released earlier this year found the Afghan civilian death toll nearly doubled in 2008 under the U.S. presence, with the U.S. responsible for almost half the deaths.
With this supplemental, U.S. taxpayers will have paid over $700 billion for the six-year war -- not counting all the related costs such as the ongoing health care for veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the war, which put the bill over $1 trillion.
Afghanistan Talking Points:
Six Reasons to Withdraw US Troops from Afghanistan
Adapted from Talking Points developed by MADRE.
1. Most Afghans Want the U.S. Out.
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Afghans have a long and proud tradition of resisting foreign occupation. The current US occupation is no exception.
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Afghan community groups, women’s organizations, and student movements have protested the occupation, but their voices are rarely heard in US media.
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More than 90 percent of Afghans polled by the BBC say they oppose the Taliban, but less than half see the US-led occupation as a positive alternative.
2. The presence of US troops is the cause of violence for ordinary Afghans, not the solution.
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Each year that the occupation drags on, more Afghan civilians are killed. In 2008 alone, more than 2100 civilians were killed , a 40 percent jump over 2007.
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The Taliban is known to attack villages where US soldiers have been . More US troops will make more civilians vulnerable to reprisal attacks.
3. An occupation by US military forces will not resolve the crisis.
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President Obama says the main goal is to stop al-Qaeda and prevent Afghanistan from being used as a base to launch attacks against the US. But he hasn’t explained how a military occupation would further that goal or produce any positive results for people in Afghanistan.
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Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates has written that, "The United States cannot kill or capture its way to victory."
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Keeping US troops in Afghanistan will not address the underlying reasons for the resurgence of the Taliban, namely: popular outrage and fear of U.S. attacks on civilians; rampant corruption in the Karzai government; and the support given to the Taliban by Pakistan.
These are political problems that cannot be solved by force.
4. Rampant abuses of Afghan women’s rights cannot be eliminated by force.
The Bush Administration justified the invasion of Afghanistan by pointing to the Taliban’s systematic abuse of women. But subsequent US policies in Afghanistan did not uphold women’s human rights. As a result:
- 1 in every 3 Afghan women experience physical, psychological or sexual violence
- 70 to 80 percent of women face forced marriages in Afghanistan
- Every 30 minutes an Afghan woman dies during childbirth
- 87 percent of Afghan women are illiterate
- 30 percent of girls have access to education in Afghanistan
- 44 years is the average life expectancy rate for women in Afghanistan
5. The U.S. occupation is backing an unpopular, corrupt government.
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The US hand-picked Afghan President Hamid Karzai, betraying many Afghans’ hope for genuine democracy. Karzai’s government is seen as somewhere between inept and predatory.
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In its efforts to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the US has brought to power notorious warlords, drug lords, and brutal militia leaders.
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60 percent of Afghanistan’s Parliament are either warlords or have ties to warlords . One MP, Mohammad Mohaqiq, is accused of nailing prisoners to walls.
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Other government officials also stand accused of war crimes, but are protected from prosecution by a general amnesty.
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Fear of US-allied warlords and militias leads to increased support for the Taliban, which promises to restore law and order.
6. U.S. Troops are Undermining Humanitarian Operations.
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The US has militarized humanitarian aid by creating “provincial reconstruction teams” (PRTs) that blur the line between combat operations and aid delivery.
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The PRTs use humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip to extort information from civilians. The practice turns urgently-needed aid into a weapon of war and endangers recipients by associating them with the US military.
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Aid operations are already threatened by the occupation. Half the country is now inaccessible to UN aid workers. Attacks on aid workers have risen 400% since 2005 , leading many agencies to scale back their programs.
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