Issue Position: War

Issue Position

Issue Position: War

The war in Afghanistan is an unfortunate position we as a country were forced into. The initial mission was to limit Al Qaeda's activities and capture Osama Bin Laden. It has taken 10 years, to achieve 1 goal. The fault lies not with our military, but with our lack of planning by our leadership in Washington.

During the War against terror in Afghanistan, our leadership, against the world's investigations and advice, performed a preemptive attack on Iraq. The decision was not whether Saddam Hussein was an "evil" leader, but was based on false information of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

This decision lead to splitting our troops into 2 separate wars, which in turn minimized the effect we could have on either front. Also, it has doubled the cost to our budget, doubled the cost to our troops, and tripled the anti-American sentiment throughout the world.

This decision was made 10 years ago and an issue that is left for us to resolve. These wars have cost $1 trillion to date and 5,885 soldiers' lives.
Iraq is over for now. Afghanistan, however, is still a major issue. Video evidence, seen below, proves our brave troops are being embedded with the Afghan National Army (ANA) under the guise of "trainers".

These videos show the ANA troops smoking Hashish, shooting their weapons into the air while under attack, then retreating to a safe area. They're not standing with us, which leaves our soldiers on the ground to fight their war alone.

As your representative I would press our military leaders and NATO to train the ANA behind lines until they have a real army. In doing so, the ANA could go out and fight without our troops. Another option is to have a limited amount of ANA soldiers, with a group of NATO troops.

What is our goal in Afghanistan right now? We cannot win the hearts and minds of a 2000 years old tribal society. We as a nation should either develop a goal with milestones, or pull out.

Also, when our President uses the War Powers Resolution to commit an act of war, without congressional knowledge, he has made our country an aggressor. Our congress needs to push our President to sign the War Powers Resolution and abide by the law.

Yes, I firmly believe we need to support the humanitarian mission, supplying medical care and food to those in need. However, our Constitution does not specify taking sides in a civil war.

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