USLAW Statement on the Imminent Afghan Escalation

United States Labor Against the War Statement on the Imminent Afghan Escalation

On the very eve of the USLAW National Labor Assembly in Chicago, President Barack Obama is expected to announce his decision about the deployment of tens of thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan. Media reports predict he will make an announcement on Tuesday evening, December 1, that he intends to send as many as 34,000 additional U.S. troops and will seek thousands more from NATO allies.

Antiwar organizations around the country are organizing to protest this military escalation in Afghanistan. We encourage USLAW affiliates, members and supporters to join them to convince the administration that this escalation puts our country on the wrong course. It is the path LBJ took in Vietnam and it cost him "The Great Society." We can do better.

While the Assembly will consider USLAW's overall stance, it has been USLAW policy since the Leadership Council meeting December, 2008, that we

Oppose any escalation of the conflict in Afghanistan and military action in Pakistan and promote non-military solutions that rely primarily on diplomacy, economic development, and pursuit of terrorists as a criminal rather than military matter.

On November 15, we reiterated this position in an Action Alert in which we said:

The wisdom of that stand has been born out by the steady deterioration in the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The government is viewed by Afghans as corrupt and ineffective. The elections there made a travesty of the very notion of democracy. Karzai, surrounded by warlords and drug lords, is thoroughly discredited. His own brother is a druglord and a thug.

Committing thousands more troops will only stiffen Afghan resistance to foreign military occupation.

During the last few weeks, across the country, tens of thousands of people who share these concerns have written and called the White House to express opposition to any escalation of the conflict in Afghanistan. They believe, as we do, that the corrupt regime in Kabul does not deserve any more blood or money.

What Afghanistan needs now is not more foreign forces but rather more international diplomacy, regional negotiations that include the Taliban, real development assistance, more schools and clinics, electrification, clean water, and sanitation.

It costs $1 million for every troop the U.S. sends to Afghanistan. The billions of dollars we are squandering there are not making us any safer, but they are draining resources that could be used here to meet the urgent needs we have here at home - for health care, education, infrastructure, and more.

Rather than listen to the generals and Congressional hawks, we must convince the Obama administration to listen to the people - a majority of whom want an end to war and occupation in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Now is not a time for silence!