-
US soldiers keep watch during an operation in Kandahar - Source: Reuters -
Related
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a
measure calling for President Barack Obama to pull US forces from
Afghanistan, in an election-year test of his decision to escalate
the war.
But dozens of Obama's Democrats in the House did support the
pullout resolution, indicating division over war policy ahead of
November congressional elections in which Republicans are expected
to make gains.
Sixty-five lawmakers, most of them Democrats, voted for the pullout
resolution written by liberal Democratic Representative Dennis
Kucinich, while 356 voted against.
It was the first challenge by members of the Democratic majority in
Congress to US involvement in the conflict since Obama ordered
30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and an offensive began last month
to retake the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Helmand
province.
Aware that many liberal Democrats are unhappy about the continuing
war, Obama has said the plan is to begin withdrawing US forces from
Afghanistan from July 2011.
The United States already plans to pull its troops from Iraq by the
end of next year.
Both wars began under George Bush, Obama's Republican
predecessor as president.
Supporters of the Kucinich resolution said it was time for
lawmakers to consider if they wanted to continue the nearly
nine-year-old war in Afghanistan in which about 1,000 US soldiers
have been killed and hundreds of billions of dollars have been
spent.
"Unless this Congress acts to claim its constitutional
responsibility, we will stay in Afghanistan for a very, very long
time at great cost to our troops and to our national priorities,"
Kucinich said.
Detractors argued the United States could not withdraw from
Afghanistan before the government there was able to provide
security because the Taliban could then provide safe haven for al
Qaeda once again.
"I'm keenly aware that even if we remain in Afghanistan - and here
I want to emphasize this - there's no guarantee that we will
prevail in our fight against al Qaeda. But if we don't try, we are
guaranteed to fail," said Representative Howard Berman, the
Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"Abandoning Afghanistan just when a new strategy and a new
leadership has begun to bear fruit I think would be a mistake,"
said House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer.
Frustrated liberals tired of war
Congress passed a resolution authorizing military force in
Afghanistan in 2001 after the September 11 attacks by al Qaeda on
the United States.
But Kucinich said the 2001 vote was not intended to endorse
unending war at an ever-rising price.
His resolution would have directed Obama to bring US forces home
by the end of this year at the latest.
Some Democrats expressed sympathy but did not back the measure
because it was brought under the provisions of the 1973 War Powers
Act, a Vietnam-era law they said did not apply to a war like
Afghanistan that Congress had authorized.
Democratic Representative Gary Ackerman suggested that war
opponents should instead vote against funding the war.
Congress is expected to act on the Obama administration's
request for $47 billion to pay for the troop surge later this
year.
Frustrated liberals said they were tired of war and of the argument
that pulling out would dishonour those who died.
"We've got to double down on a bad policy to protect the honor of
those who have already died? I don't think so," said Democrat
Patrick Kennedy.
John Duncan, one of the handful of Republicans supporting the
pullout resolution, argued there was nothing conservative about the
war in Afghanistan.
"Fiscal conservatives should be the most horrified about the
hundreds of billions that have been spent over there," he said.
