“This is not change… this is more of the same.”
The Fairfield County Weekly follows up on this MLN post on the votes by our Congressional delegation for war funding, getting quotes from Murphy:
On Afghanistan, Murphy says he voted for the bill because “It supports President Obama’s troop withdrawal plan and his counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan.
“Though my support for President Obama’s plan in Afghanistan comes with a short leash — if Afghanistan and Pakistan become more destabilized, we will need to reconsider the costs of our involvement,” Murphy says in a statement.
Murphy returned from a recent trip to Afghanistan where he was told about dramatic upticks in suicide bombings, something previously unheard of in the war-torn nation. Murphy also returned convinced the American military must stay involved.
“I believe we need to refocus our efforts in Afghanistan to stifle the drug trade, work with tribal leaders to suppress the insurgency and help bolster the country’s flagging economy,” Murphy writes on his congressional Web site.
Joe Courtney (by way of spokesman Brian Farber):
Courtney spokesman Brian Farber says the bill was about more than money: it compensates troops caught in the Bush administration’s stop-loss policy, essentially a back-door draft that kept troops stuck in years-long deployments, and requires Obama to report to Congress on military progress in Afghanistan.
“The [Obama] administration’s approach to Afghanistan is different, including working closely with local communities, tribal leaders, and providing the Afghanistan government the tools they need to defend their borders from Taliban and al-Qaeda,” Farber says.
… and the Greater New Haven Peace Council, following up on a meeting with Rosa DeLauro:
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the New Haven Democrat and powerful right hand to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, met with the Greater New Haven Peace Council for more than an hour this spring on the topic of Afghanistan. Peace council member Henry Lowendorf says DeLauro heard the group out but was not persuaded.
“She is sincere,” Lowerndorf says. “She really believes. She wants to support Obama. I just see Obama digging us deeper.” [...]
“This is not change,” Lowendorf says. “This is more of the same.”
I wonder: do Murphy, Courtney, and Obama have any sense that the never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan played any role in the Democratic takeover of the House, Senate, and White House over the last couple of years? Come on, guys — time to shut these wars down.