H. Res. 1146 - Regarding War in Afghanistan

H. Res. 1146: Providing for consideration of the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 248) directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan. This resolution is self-explanatory. Now some people might have issue with my opinion here so I am going to law out some more facts, many of which most people might not be aware of (see below). First of all, it goes without saying that the armed presence in Afghanistan is completely illegal since Congress never enacted a Declaration of War against the country, so Cathy's vote against the move to prevent the unlawful deployment of troops overseas was blatantly unconstitutional.

Any time one enters a conflict, one should have an objective and an exit strategy; that is, unless the goal is imperial control of a region for an indefinite time. What was the original goal of invading Afghanistan, at least the one that was represented to the American people? To get Osama bin Laden. Well we failed on that front and apparently now he is either dead (my belief based on the televised statements of Benazir Bhutto revealing Bin Laden's killer prior to her assassination), in Pakistan, or in Iran. Why are we still in Afghanistan then? We successfully expelled the existing government. Now we are just serving as mercenaries protecting the new government. How long do we have to stay there? Nine years is more than enough time for them to build their military infrastructure. This is now the longest conflict in U.S. history, and I cannot explain why we are still there! It is not the responsibility of the U.S. and their people to provide for the domestic security of any nation. Those we call terrorists are likely just looking to liberate their country from foreign invaders, who promised not to stay, and refuse to leave. What would we be doing if China invaded us? We would be fighting them tooth and nail, all the time they would be calling us terrorists. I have spoken to many former military that tell me that to expect a “stabilization” in Afghanistan which has always been tribal in nature, is totally absurd. So right now we have troops over there “nation building,” instead of on the southern border which has become a warzone where real American citizens are getting killed. The Bush administration has destroyed the moral of the U.S. military by the constant needless rotations in unneeded foreign conflicts, separating families, and bringing words into the vernacular such as “stop loss” which trample on the rights of the very military who volunteered to sever this country.

By the way if you are still defending the neocon faux Republicans who prosecuted this needless war please go to the following sites for some shock and awe:

1. FBI's Ten Most Wanted List – Usama Bin Laden. Please note, he is not wanted for the 9/11 attacks. If you do not believe me, read the site! We went to war with a country over this one man, and the FBI does not even want him for these attacks! The reason why? The FBI admits they do not have any hard evidence, nine years later, tying Bin Laden to the attacks! According to Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.”

2. Why is this important? The Taliban offered to turn Bin Laden over, if the US provided evidence of his guilt. Do you know how many lives could have been saved, along with Bin Laden “being brought to justice” instead of being protected by the Taliban, if the US just turned over the evidence? Well now we know why Bush rejected this. We had no real evidence of his involvement according to the FBI itself!

3. The money to fund the 9/11 bombings was provided by Pakistan, not Afghanistan. Read this Asia Times article detailing the evidence that Lieutenant-General Mahmoud Ahmad, the then director of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), wired $100,000 to Mohamed Atta! Instead of invading Pakistan (who funded the attacks) and Saudi Arabia (where most of the hijackers were from) we invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Does this bother anyone but me?

4. Moreover, it appears that the Taliban was in negotiations to turn over Bin Laden to the US prior to 9/11; however, Pakistan's leader Pervez Musharraf vetoed the deal! A senior U.S. Diplomat would later tell the Pakistani foreign minister on July 21, 2001 that the U.S. Would get rid of the Taliban under a “carpet of bombs.” Why were we planning on bombing the Taliban prior to 9/11? If you read the story in the hyperlink, you will get a since of the full horror of this unneeded war.

The real irony is that if the Obama administration at some point wants to attempt to declare martial law to forestall elections using something such as the Gulf Crisis as an excuse, those men and women in uniform who would be most likely obey their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution will not be here to protect us from our own government which would probably call in international troops and private mercenaries to help enforce the provisions of his martial law dictatorship. I told people before the election Obama will never bring troops home because the people who put him in power ultimately want to see the same endgame as those behind the scenes that put Bush in power (note also, Obama has not repealed NAFTA, the Patriot Act, FISA, etc. either contrary to promises made in his campaign).