House rejects bid to pull troops from Afghanistan (another Kucinich bill fails)

[Cali_Democrat]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/10/1523208/house-rejects-bid-to-pull-troops.html

By WILLIAM DOUGLAS
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives rejected a resolution Wednesday that called on President Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by year's end.

However, the 65 to 356 vote highlighted the willingness of liberal Democrats to abandon the president on a major issue even as important votes loom on health care, and signaled that many in his party are weary of waging war.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., gave Democrats the freedom to vote their conscience on the resolution rather than muscling them to back Obama's war policy. In the end, 60 Democrats and five Republicans voted for the resolution while 189 Democrats and 167 Republicans voted against it.

"If the leadership didn't want this debate, we wouldn't be here, there was no pushback," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. "This debate here today, more than the vote, (was) to express to the White House that there is concern - we need to talk about clarity, about when our military contribution to the political solution comes to an end."

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced the resolution, with the backing of other liberals who are angry with Obama for doubling down in Afghanistan after assuming what they thought was an anti-war posture during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Read more at link...http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/10/1523208/house-rejects-bid-to-pull-troops.html

That line caught my eye. Didn't Obama say during the campaign that he would expand the war in Afghanistan and launch attacks into Pakistan? :shrug:

[Cha]

1. Yeah, they were asleep when that was being stated over and over.

[IndianaGreen]

4. And like a previous Democratic Congress that failed to end the Vietnam War

another Democratic Congress has failed for lack of cojones.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Thousands more will die in this wasteful war and criminal war

while the rest of us talk about the sexual shenanigans of former Rep. Massa.

[slipslidingaway]

3. He said lots of things, Afghanistan he followed through on, others promises

not so much.

:shrug:

[Cha]

7. Oh, he's followed through..it just some

interneters don't have any researching abilities so they throw out cheap pot shots.

The Obameter Scorecard
Promise Kept
96 Compromise
33 Promise Broken
16 Stalled
84 In the Works
272 Not yet rated
2 PolitiFact has compiled more than 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on our Obameter.

We rate their status as Not Yet Rated, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.

The report card at right provides an up-to-the-minute tally of all the promises.

Other ways to browse the Obameter

All promises
PolitiFact's Top 25 Promises
By Subject
Economy
Energy
Military
Taxes

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. That's a shame.

And yes, it's true that Obama was for expanding the Afghanistan war, but that was an issue that I voted for him in spite of, not because of. Maybe that is what the liberals referenced meant.

[Fire1]

6. In answer to your question. Yes, indeed, he did! n/t

[Cha]

8. Yes he did~ And, Obama has been saying this

since he was a State Senator in Oct 2002..

"So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the President today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings. You want a fight, President Bush?

Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe. You want a fight, President Bush?

Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair.

The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not -- we will not -- travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain."

http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php

[IndianaGreen]

9. but bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are in Pakistan, so why is Obama killing people in Afghanistan?

Can't he read a map?

BTW, our pal Ahmadinejad was welcomed as a trusted friend today in Afghanistan by our friend Karzai. What a wonderful photo op that was! The thief of Kabul next to the thug of Tehran.

[Fire1]

15. Not quite. Intelligence reports have long since indicated

that he moves between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He stays at the border crossing of Afghanistan.

[IndianaGreen]

16. So that justifies bombing villages in Helmand province?

Our troops are chasing the Taliban, not bin Laden.

[Fire1]

17. They're pretty much "partners in crime." n/t

[IndianaGreen]

19. Since we funnel money to the Taliban, does that make us 'partners in crime?'

Or does the same logic apply to our primary client state in the Middle East? Are we "partners in crime?"

[Fire1]

24. We don't funnel money to the Taliban. The Taliban gets it's

money through extortion and other means of corruption. SOS Clinton has sited the problems which includes the lack of accountability and over- sight with regards to "wasting" money. I've provided a link to an article that I think will be most insightful. Lengthy but worth the read.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/afghanistan/100115/afghanistan-us-aid?page=0,3

[Sebastian Doyle]

29. Bin Laden is only moving back and forth

between his beachfront condo at the Lake of Fire and his main residence in the 7th circle of Hell.

[Sebastian Doyle]

28. You left out the part of that speech where he said he was against DUMB wars.

Most people didn't believe Afghanistan was a dumb war in 2002. I'll forgive him for that. But the facts are far clearer now, and it has become just as DUMB of a war as Iraq. Arguably DUMBER, given the history of all who have tried to conquer Afghanistan, and failed.

[BeFree]

10. We are so screwed

Only 60 Dems are not warmongers. I give up. This is useless. We are headed right over the edge now. Go ahead you dumb motherless bastards, vote to spend billions more and kill many more innocents.

For what? What the fuck for? To save face? To protect America? Bullshit.

The warmongers own us and they are gonna get us all killed. And some of you cheer?

We are screwed. My country has gone over the edge to batshit crazy. And we had it so good.

[neverforget]

11. Who the hell does Kucinich think he is? He has an opinion other than

pro-war? WTF? Someone better primary his ass!

[denimgirly]

12. +1

[HughMoran]

26. Of course you approve of ridiculous off-topic inflamed rhetoric

:eyes:

[Peacetrain]

25. The problem with Kuch, are not his ideas, but his inability to get anything done

He is an all the way or no way kind of guy that gets nothing done in the end..

[Raineyb]

13. I didn't think it was right when he said it then and I damn sure don't think it's right

now.

Keeping a shitty promise doesn't make it any less shitty.

[IndianaGreen]

14. the only promise kept, was the war promise

which sort of invalidates those that use it to rationalize Obama's war, and it is his war now.

[Ozymanithrax]

18. Of course it failed, Kucinich was running the effort.

[IndianaGreen]

20. I didn't see a single House leader leading the charge

just like I didn't see any of them lead the charge against the war in Vietnam.

[Ozymanithrax]

21. Kucinich tilts at windmills, he doesn't lead charges...the effect is the same...nought

There is a whole lot of La Mancha and very little Lord Cardigan in that man.

[IndianaGreen]

22. and there are a lot of war enablers on our side

just as there were during the Vietnam War.

[Ozymanithrax]

23. Again, what is the point of stopping a war, but engaging in acts of war...

as our solution of choice in 20 or 30 other countries.

Battling terrorism by setting up a Jeffersonian Democracy in Iraq that would inspire all the Middle East to become benign capitalist paradises was a monumentally grand and stupid idea doomed to failure. Attempting to do the same thing in Afghanistan is also doomed to failure. Defunding Afghanistan while expanding the scope of the war to all the Middle East, most of Africa, and most of the Far East is unrealistic as Rumsfeld's original idea to invade Iraq with 48 thousand special forces units.

You want peace, you use legal systems and pursue terrorists with warrants and courts. War on the cheap never works. Pretending that sending special forces teams and drones to kill terrorists where ever they live is not a peaceful solution.

Kucinich tilts at windmills, fails, and a lot of us on the left get excited. But total failure can only be accepted so long. It is well past the time when we all should recognize Kucinich as nothing more than a man on a Jackass and support people that actually accomplish things.

[zalinda]

27. We are in a undeclared war that we can't win

We invaded a country (now, two countries) illegally. Not only was it illegal, we were NOT invited. Just think what would happen if China did that to us. Would we just give in and say "okay, you got us", and stop fighting? Or would you fight with whatever you had to keep China from taking over?

For us invading their country, is no different from China invading our country. IT IS WRONG, AND WILL ALWAYS BE WRONG.

zalinda