NGO Sign-on Letter to Members of the House
17 NGOs request House Members become cosponsors of H.Con.Res. 248 to bring troops home from Afghanistan
Dear Congressional Staffer:
The undersigned 17 organizations representing nearly 2,000,000 supporters request that Rep. XXXX vote yeah on Rep. Kucinich’s concurrent resolution (H.Con.Res. 248) that invokes the War Powers Resolution to direct the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces by no later than the end of this year. A vote is expected today.
While the resolution language may not be perfect, it is extremely important to show the administration, the public and the media, opposition to the current military strategy in Afghanistan.
We urge Rep. XXX to vote yeah, whip for yeah votes and to speak out on the floor during debate. To request floor time during debate, contact Diala Jadallah
Pasted below is the text of the legislation and current list of cosposnors.
Some of the below organizations may use the vote in our voting records.
Please let Paul Kawika Martin of Peace Action (pmartin@peace-action.org, 951-217-7285) know how Rep. XXXX plans to act on this request.
Sincerely,
Kevin Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action
Robert Greenwald
President
Brave New Films
Gael Murphy
Cofounder
CODEPINK
John Feffer
Co-Director
Foreign Policy in Focus
Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Jose N. Vasquez
Executive Director
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
Adele Kubein
Executive Committee
Military Families Speak Out
David Krieger
President
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Dave Robinson
Executive Director
Pax Christi USA
Tom Hayden
Peace and Justice Resource Center
Tim Carpenter
Executive Director
Progressive Democrats of America
Jason Rosenbaum
Founding Editor
The Seminal
Michael T. McPhearson
United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ, a coalition of 1,000 national, regional and local groups)
Mike Ferner
National President
Veterans for Peace
Kathy Kelly
Co-coordinator
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Kevin Zeese
Executive Director
Voters for Peace
_______________________________
Text of Legislation
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/t2GPO/http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:hc248ih.txt.pdf
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), (Introduced in House)
HCON 248 IH
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. CON. RES. 248
Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 4, 2010
Mr. KUCINICH (for himself, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. FILNER, Mr. JONES, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. JOHNSON of Illinois, Mr. PAUL, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. MASSA, Mr. GRAYSON, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. PINGREE of Maine, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. CLARKE, Mr. SERRANO, and Mr. MICHAUD) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan.
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
SECTION 1. REMOVAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM AFGHANISTAN.
Pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(c)), Congress directs the President to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan–
(1) by no later than the end of the period of 30 days beginning on the day on which this concurrent resolution is adopted; or
(2) if the President determines that it is not safe to remove the United States Armed Forces before the end of that period, by no later than December 31, 2010, or such earlier date as the President determines that the Armed Forces can safely be removed.
Current 19 Cosponsors:
Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] – 3/4/2010
Rep Capuano, Michael E. [MA-8] – 3/4/2010
Rep Clarke, Yvette D. [NY-11] – 3/4/2010
Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] – 3/4/2010
Rep Davis, Danny K. [IL-7] – 3/4/2010
Rep Farr [CA]
Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] – 3/4/2010
Rep Grayson, Alan [FL-8] – 3/4/2010
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] – 3/4/2010
Rep Johnson, Timothy V. [IL-15] – 3/4/2010
Rep Jones, Walter B., Jr. [NC-3] – 3/4/2010
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] – 3/4/2010
Rep Massa, Eric J. J. [NY-29] – 3/4/2010
Rep Michaud, Michael H. [ME-2] – 3/4/2010
Rep Paul, Ron [TX-14] – 3/4/2010
Rep Pingree, Chellie [ME-1] – 3/4/2010
Rep Serrano, Jose E. [NY-16] – 3/4/2010
Rep Stark [CA]
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] – 3/4/2010
Our people need to come home, do any on you see where trying to take care of the world has got the US? I am sick of everyone in the congress and any brach of federal government. I hope everyone of you loose your jobs. Have a happy day, Harriett EAgle
OUr people need to come home, Have any on you seem what tryng to take care of the world has done to the US?
No more WAR; defense of this country would be better served by applying our resources to our own country. Bettering the lives of our own citizens; rebuilding our own country; supplying health care to ALL AMERICANS; creating jobs and sustaining and supporting the AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE. This should be the primary goal of the government; not creating fear, loathing, segregation, a generation of Muslim that have nothing but contempt for all Americans because of what we have let our government do. We need to rebuild America before we can police the world. Security starts and stops at our door step, not the criminals’.
Bring them home. War is not the answer.
The wars we are waging in Iraq and Afghanistan are only adding fuel to the fire for people who hate the US. On top of that, the war is proving to be very costly both in lives lost and financially. The money being used to wage war could be better spent to solve our own problems here.
End this unjust war, and bring our troops home!
The only individuals who benefit from wars are those who profit monitarily from them–arms industrialists, bankers, reconstruction companies, and the like. Bring the boys home! Those who are still alive deserve to live out their lives, not to die on a battlefield much less on one in a foreign country. Use the money spent on the miserable deadly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on health care, education, social welfare. Let the Iraqis and Afghanis live, too.
In a nutshell, as Anwar Sadat said: “No more wars!”
Dorothy
Bring the soldiers home.
Better to send them to the peace corp.
Make peace not war.
We are fighting unauthorized and unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The appropriate response to the tragedies of 9/11 should have been a police action. The events of 9/11, as deadly and horrific and tragic as it was, were crimes committed by a handful of extremists and should have been handled as criminal investigations. No nation-state attacked the United States. The argument that Afghanistan was secreting these extremists is weak. The world community was behind the U.S. in denouncing these acts in the aftermath of 9/11. We have lost a golden opportunity to bring those responsible to justice for these horrible acts. In the meantime, 5,000 Americans have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why? To say we are bringing democracy to these countries is a sham. What right do we have to impose our views on others? But, it was not really about bringing democracy to the citizens of these countries, was it? Everybody in the world community sees what we’re doing except in America. It’s all about neo-colonialism so we can set up puppet governments that would would act favorably in our quest to control energy sources such as oil. Let’s do the right thing for a change!
It is heartening to see that some members of congress are opposed to the imperial ambitions of the US. It occurs to me that either the present Administration was naive and blind-sighted by what was at stake in taking on these responsibilities or that we all were snookered.
The imperial megamachine, with its 750 bases around the world,and with its obscenely fat military midget, and with its continued subtle race and class war, i.e., using the poor to fight against the poor, plundering the public treasury, and bankrupting the commonweal, is obvious to most of us. Let’s bring democracy to America.
War is very late term abortion! We must stop these illegal, immoral, unwarranted wars that are killing not only our young people but families in other nations, regardless of color of skin.
It’s past time to bring them home. End the war and use the money to fund education and help the environment.
Bring our troops home. It is clear that we can bomb the world to pieces, but we cannot bomb the world to peace. We are creating havoc for the Afghans. It is time to remove our troops and give the Afghans their country back, unimpaired by the US agenda.
These wars have always been for aquiring some one elses resources and profit or a secret agenda even WWI. It is the Rothschild international banking cartel that set up our Fed that use our boys for cannon foder to reap their profits, and independent contractors and the military brass for their big retirements and pay checks and free health care some probably know and some are probably brainwashed. Like Gen medley Butler said let those that vote for war be in the front lines and there will not be anymore wars. We need a military but right here on our own soil bring them all home from everywhere. If they are spending money of the taxpayers let them spenfd it here to aid our economy.
We need to shake up our priorities. We need health care, jobs, improved education, environmental care taking, and so on. We will only have the money and resources for these vital areas, when we stop funding the “military-industrial complex”. It’s really a “no-brainer”!
There is no reason for the US to be in either country!
What is wrong with our congress & senate? I think we should FIRE all of them & start over!!! The only reason Bush sent our forces into Iraq was to kill Sadam and grab that country’s OIL! Which still is only producing less than 17% of pre-2002 barrels/day! And Afganistan–the Russians were there for 10 years and finally gave-up…why ARE we there???
THE ONLY REASON WE ARE STILL FIGHTING THESE TWO WARS IS TO SATISFY THE ONES THAT ARE GETTING WEALTHY OFF THEM.
THE SACRAFICE OF OUR YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING TO THESE GREEDY WAE MACHINES.
It’s time that this administration make the “changes” promised, which included a return home of our troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. needs to make the welfare of its legitimate citizens its No. 1 Priority for a change. We cannot save the entire world. It would be nice, sure, but it simply isn’t possible. And right now, there are far greater atrocities being perpetrated against innocent citizens in African countries which we are simply ignoring. Wars are fought for financial gain, ultimately. The only winners are the companies and individuals who supply the armaments and other material goods associated with keeping a war going. Too many innocent American lives are lost in fighting other countries’ battles. Which countries do you think would come to OUR aid if we were attacked on our own soil? Don’t hold your breath. It’s also time to get the “fat cats” out of Washington and replace them all with fresh faces who can bring some ethics, morals and common sense to the decision-making process. There is so much obscene waste in this country, it’s pathetic. If I held the purse strings, there would be no “fat” in spending; no “bridges to nowhere”; no $1,000 toilet seats; no special “perks” for Congress. Congress needs to do the job it was set up to do: represent the best interests of the people it serves. It has become nothing but a self-serving machine that views itself “better than” the people it serves, voting its own raises while Senior Citizens are forbidden any increase in Social Security payments; giving itself unlimited health care while limiting services available to its citizenry; trading “favors” between themselves while bankrupting our financial system. It all has to STOP, and since military spending is the most prolific, our participation in foreign wars must come to an end. The entire world is NOT America’s responsibility.
The people of Afghanistan want us out of there. The people of Iraq want us out of there. (And even the troops say they’ve got nothing left to do.) Candidate Obama would be jumping up and down to get us out of both. So GET OUT OF THERE! Making pals with the Pentagon is not worth a single more life.
No more imperialistic wars. Use our tax money for health care, education, repairing infrastructure and saving the environment, not to mention job creation and investing in renewable energy.
I want our soldiers home. I want peace. I do not think that these wars help anyone american or otherwise. However I do think that it would be irresponsible of us having gone in and caused so much destruction to simply pull out and leave. Peace and human rights can only survive in a stable and ordered country. If help this to happen while bringing our troops home I think that is the best course, if not I think we are obligated to stay and help form a country that is best for its people (not what is best for us)
Guerrilla wars against persistent antagonists with places to retreat and regroup are unwinnable. Bring our men and women HOME. NOW! Or, at the very least, before the end of 2011.
That’s a typo: 2010, NOT 2011. KJ
We must stop this illeagle war that was waged on innocent people now! There is very seldom, if ever,a ‘need to war upon others’. Perhaps it is time to find a humane ‘grownup’ person to govern in all counties .. Ones who would talk 1st at a peace talble for a win -win solution! What a concect no more power over but power with jistice for all parties. Please no more ploundering others for profit! thank you Grandmother tired of sending kids to war while subsidizing the war machine. Verna Bacon
Dear President Obama,
I appreciate your approach of thinking out of the box of continuing waging war against extremists in Iraq/ Afganistan but pl. also try to think of how to save innocent lives of American soldiers/civilians and take immediate action accordingly.
Occupying other nations is not democracy. We want democracy now!
I’ve never seen my country at peace. I am over 50 . What do we leave our children? All we teach is aggression, and winner take all. I am so sick of the giant egos that gain from nostop militay, industrial greed. All the men and woman who come home sick with gulf war sickness, the homeless vets the children that are born with birth defects.It is a sick sad time on Mother earth. It seems we could do much better.