In a 308-114 vote Tuesday the House of Representatives ignored a massive influx of new evidence underscoring the futility of the conflict in Afghanistan, approving a massive new appropriation of emergency war funding.
The vote came just two days after the world was treated to a massive leak of some 92,000 classified documents. The documents provided hundreds of incidents, in excruciating detail, showing just how poorly the war has been going, how many civilians have been killed, and how aware of both of these facts the military has been, despite its official claims to the contrary.
Though a number of the revelations that came to light were hardly secret to the analysts keeping a close eye on the Afghan War, the leaks have brought the grim realities of the war to the public in ways that nothing before ever could. Allegations of CIA assassination teams and massive, unreported civilian casualties are all well and good, but now having the actual documents detailing the events makes them impossible to ignore. Â
And while this is true for the media, it is doubly so for the House of Representatives, which after last Thursday’s rebuke from the Senate faced an all-or-nothing vote to provide some $33 billion in emergency war funds in order to maintain the conflict for the rest of the fiscal year. Â
Indeed, the most damning revelation of all may not be any of the particular incidents, disgraceful though they may be, but the fact that the military understands full well how poorly this conflict is going, even as it continues to tell Congress and the American public to expect blatantly unrealistic progress in the near term. Â
Those of us paying attention knew that the war was going disastrously, and the military has known that the war was going disastrously, but now we know that they know, and that makes all the rhetoric to the contrary seem absurd at best and downright offensive when it comes to shipping tens of thousands of additional soldiers to the windblown hills of Central Asia to kill and be killed. The goals were always ill defined and now it should be clear to everyone that they are unattainable at any rate.
Yet when it came down to it, with all excuses gone, and with no ability to credibly claim the war is anything but an unmitigated disaster, the hawkish members of Congress did what they always do; voted for the war and condemned the leaks on general principle.
And all excuses are gone; no one can claim that they went into this vote with blinders on, or that pledges of impending progress from the military brass overwhelmed common sense. The 308 Congressmen, roughly evenly split between both parties, did the American public, humanity, and common decency a great disservice.
With the war getting worse by the minute, Congress has shrugged off its responsibilities and chosen to defer the decision to pull the plug on this heedless endeavor largely to save face.
But this delay, though it may appeal to some, comes at a dear price, one far beyond the $33 billion price tag attached to the war segment of the bill. Prolonging the war will mean hundreds of additional troops slain in the next few months, and untold thousands of innocent civilians. With all alleged goals out of reach at any rate, can the American public really countenance the cowardice our lawmakers needed to keep this war going?
Just proves that these congresscritters, not to mention the senators, are nothing more than cheap whores selling themselves to the defense contractors.
And the "peepul" are the morons who keep sending them back for more. This country deserves what it's going to get, and I plan to be gone before that happens.
A way back when is eerily reminiscent of now. Tah-dah- AfghanisNam!
Al Queda and the Taliban must be laughing all the way to American bankruptcy. For the Congress to continue to pour billions of dollars it will have to borrow from China or the Middle East emirates into an unwinnable war is the height of irresponsible government. The cost of the wars are never predicted with precision, the cost of our inflated security systems in not even known and most of this money goes to line the pockets of the military-industrial complex magnates. When will the USA Congress begin investing in programs that will produce wealth instead of draining the nations resourses?
In a 308-114 vote Tuesday the House of Representatives ignored a massive influx of new evidence underscoring the futility of the conflict in Afghanistan, approving a massive new appropriation of emergency war funding.
And in other breaking news, the sun rose in the east this morning.
The only surprise here is that there were 114 "nay" votes. I would have expected the final tally to be something closer to 433-2.
The war in Afghanistan is lost. I'm not sure it ever could have been won in the first place.
Afghanistan is "the graveyard of soldiers and of empires" – NO invader has ever won a war there.
History records that 'empires' generally fall at the height of their military power – even the 'victories' bankrupt them.
It is NOT the sons and daughters of the members of Congress who are dying in Afghanistan.
The war was LOST the first day an American stepped on Afghan soil.
How monkeys are readly caught in Africia. . Natives fill a necked glass jar with nuts.Once the monkey sees and climbs down from the high safety of the coconut tree. Slides his hand into the filled nut jar. Then the native jumps out of hidding. The monkey refuses to let go of the hand held nuts and can't climb the tree. So determined to have the nuts,even when about to be clubbed to death–the stupid monkey does not let go of the nuts in hand.
Why is USA/NATO in this far away place? Sideline Russia in the oil business. Why did Russia invade this same place ?–same reason–oil control into EU
USA is the hired hitman for EU :^/
what the use of spending all this money on war, when it should be spend in todays economy, going to war with afganstan is a waste, because all these years we got nothing out of it. We can't even find Osama Bin Laden. Spending $33 billion in emergency war funds in order to maintain the conflict for the rest of the fiscal year is a waste, because we will continue to spend this kind of money until we get out of the war. So the congress made a mistake to approve this
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