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As the House geared up to vote on a $100 billion supplemental wartime funding bill a few weeks ago, 11 veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq traveled to DC to tell Congress to Rethink Afghanistan. They stood on the Capitol steps with signs that read: “How Many Civilians Are We Killing?” “Is There an Exit Strategy?” and “Have We Exhausted Non-Military Options?” They visited 63 Congressional offices, telling all who would listen about the dangers of the current plan to commit 21,000 more troops and hundreds of billions more taxpayer dollars to the war in Afghanistan.
Though the supplemental bill eventually passed the House, the silver lining is that these vets and the Rethink Afghanistan campaign were able to grab Congress’s attention. What’s more, while on the Hill, it became clear to these vets that the more winnable fight here could be urging members of Congress to back Rep. Jim McGovern’s call for an exit strategy in Afghanistan. McGovern’s bill would require Defense Secretary Gates to create an exit strategy by the end of the year. You can support these brave vets and tell Congress we need an exit strategy.
