Blog
The Surge Worked. It Might Need to Again.
September 01, 2010 | Posted by Tom Andrews
While President Obama called on the nation last night to “move beyond our differences” on the disastrous US Iraq policy, the Congressional Republican leadership – John Boehner in the House and Mitch McConnell in the Senate- were delivering high-octane speeches attacking the president for opposing the military surge of US forces in 2007 that they claim turned the tide in the Iraq war.
In fact a surge did turn out to be a key to changing direction in the catastrophe that followed the US invasion and military occupation in Iraq. But, it wasn’t the surge of military forces that Boehner, McConnell and their fellow Iraq war apologists talk about, but the surge in anti-war sentiment in both the United States and Iraq. Read More »
Tom Andrews on Hardball Discussing Petraeus’ Media Blitz to Re-Sell the Afghan War [Video]
August 19, 2010 | Posted by Daniel Pollitt
Watch Tom debate former Bush White House staffer Dan Senor on Petraeus' media blitz to re-sell the Afghan War. Read More »
Gen. Petraeus’ Nation Building Media Tour
August 17, 2010 | Posted by Tom Andrews
“That's why our troop commitment in Afghanistan cannot be open-ended -- because the nation that I'm most interested in building is our own."
That was the commitment President Obama made when he announced the military escalation of American troops in Afghanistan before an audience of cadets at West Point last year. That was then, this is now. The media tour that General David Petraeus embarked on this week demonstrates that a withdrawal is, in fact, fully underway – not of US troops from Afghanistan, but rather, of the president’s assurance that we do not have an open ended military commitment to the Karzai government in Afghanistan. The Petraeus media tour is making it crystal clear - July 2011 is more political gesture than time-frame for the withdrawal of US forces.
Read More »
Senator Obama vs President Obama on Afghanistan [Video]
August 10, 2010 | Posted by Hasnain Nazar
Courtesy of Dan Froomkin and Huffington Post we present to you Senator Obama vs President Obama. This video highlights the transformation of Senator Obama from a skeptic of President Bush's military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan to President Obama as a champion of the Afghan War. Read More »
Hamid Karzai: Our Unscrupulous Partner
August 06, 2010 | Posted by Hasnain Nazar & Daniel Pollitt
As reported by the Washington Post, President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into the U.S.-backed Major Crimes Task Force, charged with rooting out corruption in the Afghan government. Karzai ordered the probe after a top adviser, Mohammad Zia Saleh, an official in the office of the national security adviser, was arrested by the Task Force for allegedly agreeing to accept a 10,000 dollar car in return for promising to shut down "the investigation of an influential government official for drug smuggling." Read More »
Conversation with Matt Hoh [Video]
August 02, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Anderson
Former State Department Official Matt Hoh joins Win Without War's Tom Andrews to discuss the WikiLeaks "War Logs," this week's vote on war funding in Congress and the war in Afghanistan. Read More »
Video: Reps. David Obey, Jim McGovern and Barbara Lee, Speak out against War Funding
July 27, 2010 | Posted by Hasnain Nazar
Today the House debated and then voted on the emergency war supplemental. Watch Reps. David Obey, Jim McGovern and Barbara Lee speak out against the war in Afghanistan. Read More »
146 Votes Away from Afghanistan Exit
July 27, 2010 | Posted by Tom Andrews
It was July 1 when 162 Members of the House voted for Congressman Jim McGovern’s amendment requiring an exit strategy with a time certain for US combat troops to be withdrawn. The leaked documents underscore why the open ended military commitment to the second most corrupt government on earth, the Karzai government, makes no sense. Under the rules of the House, if these 162 House Members hold their ground today and vote against sending an additional $33 billion for this endless war, the motion to pass the appropriation will be defeated. Read More »
Reps. McGovern & Pingree on Hardball [Video]
July 26, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Anderson
Reps. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME) discuss WikiLeaks' "War Logs" and the coming House vote on the president's request for an additional $33 billion in war funding. Read More »
Wikileaks’ Afghan Logs
July 26, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Anderson
The whistleblowers at Wikileaks have yet again pulled back the curtain to reveal how the US military is waging war abroad. Revealing 92,000 pages of classified material on the war in Afghanistan, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says the documents "show the true nature of this war." Here's your quick reference guide to all the best coverage as this story unfolds. Read More »
Cuts = Growth?
July 23, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Anderson
Only in the topsy-turvy world of defense budget politics can the New York Times pretend that real growth equals budget austerity. Read More »
Grasping at “Turning Points” in Afghanistan
July 22, 2010 | Posted by Tom Andrews
The Obama administration’s credibility erodes every time it dusts off and redeploys the tired “turning point” mantra to describe a war and a strategy that continues to go from bad to worse. The reality is that a political turning point is taking shape in the House, where a strong majority of Democrats voted to represent the view of a majority of Americans--that the war in Afghanistan is not worth it. And, it is unfolding in the Senate where a respected Republican joined the chorus of criticism against the war. Read More »
Ever Notice How the Best Commentary on the War is from Comedy Central?
July 20, 2010 | Posted by Hasnain Nazar
Some great commentary by John Stewart and Steven Colbert regarding the War and Michael Steele's comments. Read More »
Picking Up Steam in the House
July 02, 2010 | Posted by Tom Andrews
Yesterday Congress moved one step closer to representing the majority of Americans who believe the war in Afghanistan has not been worth the sacrifice of over 1,000 American service members and $1 trillion dollars by an attempt in voting to end the war. Congressional opposition to our failed strategy in Afghanistan was reflected in growing support for the efforts of leaders like Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) to responsibly bring our troops home.
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Video: Antiwar voices growing in the house
July 01, 2010 | Posted by Hasnain Nazar
Antiwar voices growing in the house, Rep. John Conyers, Bob Filner, Alan Grayson, Barbara Lee, Judy Chu, Sheila Jackson Lee and Mike Honda held a press conference this morning to call out republican hypocrisy on fiscal responsibility.
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Barbara Lee, David Obey and Jim McGovern: Willing to Take a Stand on Afghanistan
June 30, 2010 | Posted by Daniel Pollitt
It's refreshing to see members of Congress take a stand for what they believe in.
Not content with being a rubber stamp for the Presidents policy on Afghanistan, a group of Democrats in Congress have decided to take their responsibility of oversight seriously. Ratcheting up pressure on President Obama, Democrats in the House of Representatives are expected to offer two amendments to the supplemental war spending bill, which, if passed, would represent a significant step towards ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.
Read More »
Video: Rep. Barbara Lee on Meet the Press
June 28, 2010 | Posted by Hasnain Nazar
Yesterday, antiwar champion Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) appeared on Meet the Press to discuss the recent firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the future of US policy in Afghanistan. Watch as Rep. Lee faces off with author Sebastian Junger, journalist Tom Ricks, veteran Wes Moore, and retired General Barry McCaffrey. Read More »
Video: Tom Andrews on John King USA
June 23, 2010 | Posted by Hasnain Nazar
Tom Andrews discusses future of General McChrystal and war on CNN with John King Read More »
3 Things You Missed in Rolling Stone’s McChrystal Profile
June 23, 2010 | Posted by Tom Andrews
Michael Hastings' piece is about more than an adolescent general and his buddies' school-yard shenanigans in Kabul and Paris. It was about a failing strategy in Afghanistan and the disconnect between how the administration portrays the war in public and the reality of how the war is actually being waged.
Here are three points in the Rolling Stone article that contradict what the White House has presented to Congress and the American people about the war in Afghanistan: Read More »
Firing McChrystal is Not Enough
June 22, 2010 | Posted by Tom Andrews
It's not enough to fire General McChrystal for his latest public act of insubordination. It's time to fire the entire Afghanistan strategy. How can Congress possibly appropriate an additional $33 billion to a General who does not believe in the mission, the Commander-in-Chief or the administration officials he so obviously holds in contempt? The answer is obvious: it can't. Read More »
