[Peace-discuss] House Votes Today on Afghan, Pakistan Wars

[Robert Naiman]

[Note that while we can be pretty confident that Rep. Johnson will
vote no on the war money, we have no such assurance, as far as I am
aware, that he will support the Kucinich-Paul measure calling for the
withdrawal of U.S. forces from Pakistan; another reason to call, using
the toll-free number provided below.]

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this afternoon on
the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This morning, the Senate version of the Afghanistan war supplemental
was brought up in the House under "suspension" rules, which require a
2/3 majority to pass. This expedited procedure is generally used for
measures considered "uncontroversial," which is odd, to say the least,
since the war in Afghanistan is anything but uncontroversial, with the
most recent evidence being the release by Wikileaks of secret
documents on the war, which the New York Times reported "offers an
unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in
many respects more grim than the official portrayal."
[...]
If 90% of the Members who voted for the McGovern-Obey-Jones amendment
on July 1 vote no this afternoon on the war supplemental, the measure
will fail.
[...]
Also on the House calendar today is H.Con.Res. 301, a "privileged
resolution" introduced by Reps. Dennis Kucinich, Bob Filner, and Ron
Paul, which invokes the War Powers Act to force a debate and vote on
the deployment of U.S. forces in Pakistan.

As Representative Kucinich points out, what U.S. forces are doing in
Pakistan has never been authorized by Congress. The 2001 authorization
of military force targeted those who planned and carried out the
September 11 attacks and those who harbored them. It was not a blank
check to attack anyone we don't like, or anyone our friends don't
like. U.S. forces in Pakistan are targeting people who did not, as far
as we know, plan or participate in the September 11 attacks, and
against whom no evidence has been presented that they harbor those who
did. Whether one thinks the enterprise worthy or not, U.S.
participation in a war against the internal foes of Pakistan has never
been authorized by Congress. There's nothing in the 2001 authorization
of military force about a barter agreement in which we attack people
in Pakistan that the Pakistani government doesn't like in exchange for
permission to attack people in Pakistan that we don't like.

You can urge your Representative to vote no on the war supplemental
(HR 4899) and yes on Rep. Kucinich's resolution against the presence
of U.S. troops in Pakistan (H.Con.Res. 301) by using the toll-free
number established by FCNL: 1-888-493-5443.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/house-votes-today-on-afgh_b_660770.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/7/27/122924/013

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/658

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

Urge Congress to Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern