McGovern fights Afghan war funding

I thought this was the "good" war?

"After 8 years, he is getting a sinking feeling that we are getting in deeper and deeper into Afghan without any idea how we are going to get out,"

I thought we got out when we won.

Are we there yet mommy?

So basically they want us to stop the war we should have finished before Iraq.... great idea. Lets stop fighting the country that help attacked us during 9/11. smucks

I thought Afghanistan was the right place to be fighting AQ according to the leftists. (Never mind how many of them our troops killed in Iraq after they came calling after Saddam and his government fell). Now, we have a low level marine who left the service and a bunch of pacificts who think we should cede Afghanistan to AQ and the Taliban and nothing bad will come of it.

When an enemy declares war against you it is only when one of you surrenders that the conflict is over.

Oh, how come the Glob didn't bother to interview anyone on the other side of this issue? Obviously the writer has some sympathies for the cause.

Yeah you said it, when we win we leave no exceptions. thats just my opinion.

Craig,

This is the right place to fight. It's just that you cannot win by using force alone, and we did such a poor job in Afghanistan politically that it will take a long time to fix it.

Remember, Afghanistan thoroughly defeated the Soviet's Red Army - USSR was much closer and threw more conventional forces at them.

We must win that battle politically and economically, and we are instead focusing on sending more troops...

I wish I knew what constituted winning in these wars. Destroying the Taliban? Destroying non-Taliban insurgents, Rebuilding Afghanistan, Rebuilding Pakistan's border province, Destroying fanatical Islam? Destroying Islam?

"he strongly believed in the mission, but that the US presence has grown extremely unpopular among Afghans, as civilian casualties have increased."

Sounds familiar to the same arguments that I heard a couple years ago...

Is it about doing what's popular or what's right? A popular saying in Afghan is, "The American's have wrist watches, but we have the time." Not saying I know the answer, but quitting because its unpopular has never worked well for the country that was hosting the conflict. Either finish the fight or don't start it (whether or not we started it is another discussion completely).

It would have been nice to have killed Bin Laden- but since Bush and Dick really didn't want to do that he got away forever. Killing hundreds of villagers every month isn't helping anyone. Listen to the veterans and get the f@$! outta dodge.

I am so grateful to hear from Senator McGovern. He has always been in the forefront of civilized behavior between nations and although certainly contributed his time and energy during WW II, realizes the futility of what we have become engaged in in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We cannot afford financially or personally, the high costs of continuing the 2 wars that have drained our finances, lost so many young men and women,especially when we have many critical needs on the domestic front presently. And we have accomplished nothing worthwhile in Iraq or Afghanistan.

When are we getting out of Germany? Okinawa? The Philippines? Cuba? England? South Korea? We've been in the Philippines for 111 years now, and I don't see anyone screaming to leave any time soon. I'm confused about this whole thing about exit strategies. If I remember my history correctly, the exit strategy in war is to stay until the other side surrenders and the area is pacified. You want to make friends and win hearts and minds in afganistan? Do what you can to pacify the area as quickly as possible, not drag it out by limiting and half-assing it.

This is what happens when all we do is elect lawyers. All they know is yelling until no one wins and everyone loses.

If Obama is afraid to release photos of US torture, then the photos must be bad. Did we let the Nazis cover up what they did--because people would be disgusted and angry at them? No. We can't cover up our crimes either.
If we don't bring our war criminals to justice, somebody else will. And if we try to hide what they did, we will incriminate ourselves and WE will endanger our troops.
If we are afraid for our troops, we should bring them home. We have no right to be in Afghanistan in the first place. We invaded Afghanistal. And Iraq.

Hey Craig, you sound like a tough friggin kid. How many tours you serve?

Very glib, Craig. Please define terms. What does winning mean? How many innocent villagers will be collateral damaged before their relatives turn en masse against the "good guys"? 'twould be nice to have simple answers.

Funny how Iraq and Afghanistan were "criminal wars" against humanity, and on and on when Bush was in charge; now that Obama's butt is in a bind, there's not
a sound out of the outraged leftists! All you phony peace-loving lefties DO know that he's sending 50,000 more troops to Afghanistan, don't you? And Iraq won't wind down until August 31, 2010. To hear him during the campaign, it looked like Obama would be out of there before lunchtime....DUH.

Iraq is where civilization began and is a real country. The was a chance that it could have been changed into a democracy. I doubt it now.
Alexander the great, the Huns, The British Empire, and the Solviet empire tried to passify Afganistan with no luck.
Anything other than Special forces, preditors and aircraft is a waste of money and human life.
If they send kids to fight in that meatgrinder, the least they can do is give them proper equiptment.
If the taxpayers can pay for Aidens sex change, they can buy the soldiers a good bulletproof vest.,

It sounds like McGovern has a new start-up business.
Selling white flags!

I appreciate the perspective of the vets against more warring in Afghanistan. They were there and saw the reality of it. Maybe it's time to reevaluate the whole picture in the Middle East. Everything has changed since our occupation of Iraq--especially in Pakistan, Iran and Gaza. The wishes of the Afghan people need to be respected. Although they are not a cohesive group, many of them know what devastation has befallen Iraq with the USA on its side. They are tired of war. Can't we make (or buy) enough friends in the area to expose Bin Laden and the Taliban leaders?

Obama is becoming more like Dubya every day.
Sterling Greenwood/Aspen Free Press

HBX,

I know about force and the use of NGO's and other incentives (i.e. viagra for tribal cheifs and swords for tribal leaders). Afghanistan did not thoutoughly defeat the Soviets. The Soviets helped defeat themselves with their command and control structure, that the CIA told the Afghani's to exploit. Who gave the Afghani's Stinger missles? Troops, can do more than fire a gun.

Yes, this is the good war, because a Democrat is in the whitehouse. It seems that when Bush drops bombs on civilians we call it murder. It seems when Obama does it, it is called something else. This should be a comfort to the dead women and children, I am sure!

Isn't it amazing that suddenly the liberal anti-war protesters are not protesting anymore? Seems people are still dying, civilians are still dying, but now the dying is OK. Becuase the president is a liberal, just like them!

Let's get serious about this. Yes, Obama pledged to refocus our military efforts on Afghanistan when he was running for office. But he's a smart man, capable of rethinking his positions, unlike his mentally-challenged predecessor. Congressman McGovern's trying to present an alternate solution and is actually doing Obama a favor, because however much Obama may say he wants to hear all opinions, what he's mostly getting is cheers from grateful Democrats, many of whom would not have gotten elected without Obama's coattails. So let's give three cheers for Congressman McGovern and let's hope many others join the dialogue.

Did anyone else notice that all the name calling in these comments comes from the right? It will be impossible for this country to survive if we are unable to have civil discourse. We should discount any "thoughts" containing the words conservative or liberal. My idea of conservative may be your idea of liberal. Those terms are probably the most ill-defined in the English language. We are all Americans. Fearmongering and hatred are not represented in the Constitution of the USA and, come to think of it, neither are liberals or conservatives.

I voted for Obama but am not liking some of his stances. A) Stop funding Pakistan. They are in cohoots with the Taliban. They will milk our tax dollars as much as possible. They created the frankenstein mess, now let them get out. If we're concerned about nukes, we will forcibly take control of their nuclear programme, and let them dig themselves out of the hole they created in aligning their Intelligence ISI agency with terrorist Islamic organizations like Taliban, Laskhar e Toiba, Jaish e Mohammed, Harkat al Unsar, the list goes on and on....

B) Why is Obama not releasing evidence regarding the tortures in Gitmo? If human rights violations occurred, if torture occured, we must uncover the truth, regardless of its implications.

Pearl Volkov,
"I am so grateful to hear from Senator McGovern. He has always been in the forefront of civilized behavior between nations and although certainly contributed his time and energy during WW II, realizes the futility of what we have become engaged in in Iraq and Afghanistan."

McGovern was born November 20, 1959 and therefore couldn't have contributed anything "during WW II"!

My guess is that McGovern is positioning himself to be the ultra-liberal candidate for Ted Kennedy's Senatorial seat.

Congrats to Mr McGovern who is willings to forget about polls and do what's right when it counts! Peace is cheap so lets stop before it's another Iraq and bring that $$ back to the US.

This is supposed to be the 'Good' war. Let's get BL and the ELQ, then go home.

How can congress approve any war without a clearly defined exit strategy and a steadfast commitment to that strategy? The cyclical ignorance of our policy makers and the popular attitude of the American public is growing intolerable and unsustainable. How many blank checks are we going to write for unnecessary wars thousand of miles away while we accumulate an insurmountable debt? We want to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq while our own country's infrastructure crumbles and is outshined by almost every other industrial nation. We want to provide basic services to foreigners that we do not understand while a quarter of our own population has no health care, millions are in debt and unable to afford the means to pursue and secure their rightful liberty and happiness. Its time to rethink our role in the world and our governments role to its own people. Good luck trying to convince the public of a war in Iraq that costs over a trillion dollars. Do the math on what that costs every citizen and then add the irreparable human cost and see how popular and patriotic the war is. Peace is patriotic and supporting and serving all of our own people before any foreigners should not even be a cchoice.

What "War in Afghanistan?"
DId the Afghans attack the US?
No.
Did the Taliban attack the US?
No.

al Queda attacked the US.

So find them, punish them, bin Laden and company.

This is insane.

Thank you, Jim.

I'm a "liberal anti-war protester" and believe me, we are still protesting the wars and occupations under Obama and will continue. Afghanistan is not a "good war." There are no good wars. And we can't "stay until we win," because nobody knows what "winning" is. If you expect a country, a continent, or a religion to lay down and say "Here. You're right. Take our oil. Take whatever you want and choose our leaders for us," you are insane. But that's what our government (the same one that's giving all our money to the banks) is trying to do.

please tired
hearing of war if they would do good there i understand but i love my brave canadian soldiers but i want them back home with there family ss my mom and dad was in world war 2 on d_day i will never vote again ty prime minister.

please tired
hearing of war if they would do good there i understand but i love my brave canadian soldiers but i want them back home with there family ss my mom and dad was in world war 2 on d_day i will never vote again ty prime minister.