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Dear Friend,
What the Act Will Do :
- Require the President to send Congress a plan with timeframe and completion date on the departure of US troops;
- Require the President to report every 90 days on the status of the plan,
- Require the President to disclose the savings if the U.S. to conclude the pullout within 180 days.
For almost 10 years, the United States has used overwhelming military force against perceived enemies. After the killing of Osama bin Laden, its time to re-examine this destructive cycle and to demand an end to the war in Afghanistan.
Many lawmakers as well as significant segments of the public already are pushing for our military to leave that country. The war in Afghanistan costs some $10 billion each month, crippling our already rocky economy. The cost in blood has been horrific. Last year saw the highest number of Afghan civilian casualties and the highest number of US soldier deaths.
The Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act, co-authored by US Reps. Jim McGovern (D V MA) and Walter Jones (R-NC), is an important beginning to the end of this war. Write your representative to support the act.
The bill, H.R. 1735, requires the President to send Congress a transition plan V with time frame and completion date V for the departure of US troops. The President would report every 90 days on the plans status, and include the human and fiscal costs to the US of remaining in Afghanistan. The President also must include estimated savings if the US steps up -its troop withdrawal and concludes the transition within six months.
Write your -representative-to strongly support this bill. It is a much-needed counterbalance to the simplistic reliance on military might that brought us this failed war.
Wage Peace,
Peter Lems and Mary Zerkel
American Friends Service Committee
