Stop the escalation in Afghanistan!

Several groups have asked for all of us to call our elected Representative to stop the escalation of the violence in Afghanistan and the escalation of 17,000 more US troops in Afghanistan. Here are the groups asking for this:

Code Pink, American Conservative Defense Alliance, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Foreign Policy In Focus, Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), Tom Hayden, Institute for Policy Studies, Just Foreign Policy, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, Pax Christi USA: National Catholic Peace Movement, Peace Action, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, United for Peace and Justice, U.S. Labor Against the War, Voters for Peace, Win Without War, and Women's Action for New Directions.

Many of those groups I deeply admire and respect. Several US Representatives have written a letter to Mr. Obama asking that there not be an escalation. Please call your Representative and ask him or her to sign on to the letter below. The number to call is 202-225-3121. Please ask them to contact the office of Rep. Walter Jones or his staff and sign on to the letter. Rep. Jones number is 202-225-3415.

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Text of letter:

Dear Mr. President:

We have noted with some concern your announcement that an additional 17,000 US troops would be sent to Afghanistan. As the goals of our seven year military involvement remain troublingly unclear, we urge you to reconsider such a military escalation.

If the intent is to leave behind a stable Afghanistan capable of governing itself, this military escalation may well be counterproductive. A recent study by the Carnegie Endowment has concluded that "the only meaningful way to halt the insurgency's momentum is to start withdrawing troops. The presence of foreign troops is the most important element d riving the resurgence of the Taliban."

The 2001 authorization to use military force in Afghanistan allowed military action "to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States." Continuing to fight a counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan does not appear to us to be in keeping with these directives and an escalation may actually harm US security.

In a tape released in 2004, Osama bin Laden stated that al Qaedas' goal was to "bleed.. .America to the point of bankruptcy" in Afghanistan. He continued, "All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note. . . ." We would do well to pay attention to these threats and to avoid falling into any such trap through escalation of our military presence in
Afghanistan.

We are also concerned that any perceived military success in Afghanistan might create pressure to increase military activity in Pakistan. This could very well lead to dangerous destabilization in the region and would increase hostility toward the United States.

Mr. President, in reviewing the past history of Afghanistan and the nations that have failed to conquer it -- Russia spent nine years in Afghanistan and lost many billions of dollars and more than 15,000 Russian soldiers-- we urge you to reconsider the decision to send an additional 17,000 troops and to resist pressure to escalate even further.

Sincerely,
Representative Neil Abercrombie (D-HI 1st)
Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD-6th)
Representative Walter Jones, Jr. (R-NC 3rd)
Representative Steve Kagen (D-WI-8th)
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH 10th)
Representative Ron E. Paul (R-TX 14th)
Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY-1st)
Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA 6th)