[Peace-discuss] Cheryle Jackson: It's Time to Come Home

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cheryle-jackson/its-time-to-come-home_b_370479.html

[Cheryle Jackson, President of the Chicago Urban League, is running
for the U.S. Senate from Illinois.]

It's Time to Come Home

The Holidays are a time for fellowship and coming home. It's a time
where families join together and are reminded of what they have. But
for many of the families of our brave men and women, it's a difficult
and poignant reminder that they're spending one more holiday away from
loved ones.

I am grateful and humbled by the heroism of our military and their
families who have sacrificed for our freedom and democracy. Freedom
isn't free and there are times when we must use our military in
support of American ideals. However, this is no longer one of them.
It's time for America to bring our troops and money home. This should
be the last holiday season our troops are separated from their
families.

The Bush Administration misled the country into a six-year war in Iraq
with questionable intelligence, insufficient resources and no strategy
to win or for exit. This cost our country more than 4,000 American
lives and more than $935 billion for both wars. We have started to
move out of Iraq and we should start to move out of Afghanistan --
now.

Soon, President Obama will decide whether to send additional troops to
Afghanistan or begin to bring our brave men and women home. So far,
Afghanistan has cost over 800 lives and $228 billion. Even the
smallest increased deployment being considered would cost another $20
billion. If 40,000 additional troops are placed at risk, the price
could double to $40 billion. This is not an easy decision, but choices
about war never are.

Here, history can serve as a guide. In the 1960s, America had Vietnam;
a guerrilla war, a world away against an enemy defending its homeland
for vague American national interests. In the 1980s, the then-Soviet
Union engaged in a nine-year war in its own backyard facing the same
Afghan nation. The results in both were similar -- many lives and
treasure lost with no clear victory. We can learn from history and
choose to act differently.

I am concerned that our mission in Afghanistan is unsustainable in
light of corruption and instability in the Karzai government and the
Taliban's control of much of the country. The U.S. Ambassador to
Afghanistan, retired Lieutenant General and former top military
commander in Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, said recently that he had
deep concerns about sending more troops unless President Karzai
commits to ending corruption and mismanagement. I share this view and
believe we must get out of this quagmire.

It's time to take care of America again and it's time to bring our
troops home. In Illinois, some soldiers are facing their third or
fourth deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq. These deployments not only
put the lives of our soldiers at risk, but they also create economic
hardships on working families. We are in the midst of the largest
economic crisis since the Great Depression and our unemployment rate,
at almost 10%, is expected to remain so for some time. Until we stop
spending hundreds of billions on wars, we will not have the focus or
money to solve the challenges we face at home.

The United States should set an aggressive timetable for full
withdrawal from Afghanistan to force its government to end corruption
and establish military and police security in the country. As an
American, I will always support our brave servicemen and women. As a
United States senator, I will back military engagement only with clear
objectives, carefully considered, and fully explained to the American
people. I will always serve as a voice for working families struggling
to make ends meet. It is time to focus on America. It is time to come
home.

Follow Cheryle Jackson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Cheryle Jackson

--
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org