Quote of the Day: “In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” – Robert M. Gates
2012 has been bad for the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. That’s why I wrote to my Representative and Senators telling them to pull the troops out.
The hard-wired message reads…
Remove our troops from Afghanistan now.
I wrote these additional comments, from which you may borrow or copy…
The President plans NATO troop withdrawal by mid-2014. Force him instead to initiate a safe, orderly, but IMMEDIATE pull-out.
Osama bin Laden is dead. Al Qaeda is virtually non-existent in Afghanistan. You can call that “mission accomplished.”
No good has resulted from our prolonged occupation. In 2012 alone, Afghans and the international community have been outraged by…
* Marines urinating on Afghan corpses
* The burning of Korans at an air base
* And a shooting spree by a U.S. soldier that left 16 dead — mostly women and childrenThis is on top of years of Afghan resentment toward night raids and air strikes that have left countless civilians dead.
This means the nation is ripe for never-ending Taliban propaganda and recruitment. As reported in 2010… (http://bit.ly/jaqYyb)
* In some war-torn areas, 92% of young men had even never heard of 9/11.
* No wonder, then, that four in ten believe U.S. troops are there to “destroy Islam or occupy Afghanistan.”
* 43 percent could not name one positive aspect of democracy.
* After a decade of “nation-building,” the majority of the nation remains illiterate.Even Afghan soldiers and government employees are angry with us. NATO advisors aren’t even safe in high-security government buildings in Kabul. And NATO troops are vulnerable to attacks from Afghan Army troops. (http://nyti.ms/xTEunQ) Even Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was a target. (http://tgr.ph/z88R0p)
The longer U.S. troops stay in the country, the more Afghans will resent and attack them. And the danger these young Americans face, gets worse each day.
Moreover, our occupation won’t succeed in “Westernizing” Afghan culture. Indeed, imposition of our values will only cause more backlashes. We must leave the Afghan people to sort things out for themselves. We would lose nothing strategically by leaving — only more lives and hundreds of billions of tax dollars.
Furthermore, YOU have nothing to lose by supporting a pullout. Polls show that the American people want an end to this war (http://bit.ly/yJrJFo)…
* 60% of Americans say the war has not been worth fighting, and even half of Republicans agree.
* 54% said the forces should be withdrawn even if Afghan security forces aren’t yet self-sufficient.You’re continuing to keep those troops there against American’s wishes and against American interests. Count me amongst those who do not consent to this deadly government boondoggle. Get our troops out of Afghanistan. Now.
END LETTER
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Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.