President Obama says that he is still weeks away from a decision on Afghanistan--So call your Senators and Representative at the Congressional switchboard ((202) 224-3121), and call the Obama White House at (202) 456-1111, and let them know that the United States has wasted enough money on George W. Bush's misadventures in the Mideast. We have sacrificed enough lives. Enough is enough.

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Did you know:

“[In Afghanistan], Taliban attacks are up; deadly roadside bombs or IEDs are fast on the rise (a 350% jump since 2007); U.S. deaths are at a record high and the numbers of wounded are rising rapidly; European allies are ever less willing to send more troops; and Taliban raids in the capital, Kabul, are on the increase.”-- Tom Engelhardt, author of The End of Victory Culture, tomdispatch.com, 11/1/09

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Did you know that we didn't need to invade Afghanistan to get Osama Bin Laden?

“The Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef...said the Taliban would detain bin Laden and try him under Islamic law if the United States makes a formal request and presents them with evidence.” (you know--what was once known as “probable cause” in the pre-Bush world)--CNN, 10/7/01

Okay--No trial in Afghanistan--How about a neutral third country?

“"Haji Abdul Kabir - the third most powerful figure in the ruling Taliban regime--told reporters that the Taliban would require evidence that Bin Laden was behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, but added: ‘we would be ready to hand him over to a third country'”.--The Guardian, 10/14/01

There they go again--insisting on evidence. Don't they understand? That is not the way things work in Bu$hWorld:

“We know he's guilty. Turn him over.”--George W. Bush, explaining the finer points of the American judicial system, The Washington Post, 10/29/01

Unsurprisingly, the Bush Administration rejected all offers to have Osama bin Laden arrested and tried. George W. Bush came into office determined to be a “war President”, and he was not going to let a bunch of Islamic fundamentalists spoil his big chance by arresting his “boogie man” and beheading him in the public square.

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Did you know that al Qaida doesn't have to be in Afghanistan to plot against us? Much of the planning for the 9/11 attacks was done in Germany, and the terrorists attended flight school in the good old USA. Have we bombed those training facilities yet?

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Did you know that the Taliban in Afghanistan outlawed the production of opium in 2000?

“U.N. drug control officers say the Taleban religious militia has virtually wiped out opium production in Afghanistan since banning poppy cultivation in July. A 12-member team from the U.N. Drug Control Program spent two weeks searching most of the nation's largest opium-producing areas and found so few poppies that they do not expect any opium to come out of Afghanistan this year.”-- St. Petersburg Times, 2/16/01

Then came Operation “Enduring Freedom”, George W. Bush's ill-advised invasion of Afghanistan. Since then, poppy production has flourished. In 2000, the year before the Taliban virtually eliminated poppy cultivation, Afghanistan accounted for 75% of the world's opium poppy production. Today, after eight years of occupation by US and NATO forces, Afghanistan accounts for 92 percent of the world's production (U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, 11/21/09).

This dramatic increase in opium production occurred in spite of the Bush Administration squandering $45 million dollars a year on an eradication program. Now, “U.S. authorities say they are all but abandoning the Bush-era policy of destroying drug crops.” (AP, 7/11/09)

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Did you know--not everyone thinks continuing the war in Afghanistan is a good idea?

“Our actions in Afghanistan have caused a perfect storm of untold numbers of civilian deaths, fundamentalist resurgence, and women's oppression. We're protecting a corrupt government with a puppet president and criminal warlords, and our deadly bombing raids have led to a devastated and rightly bitter population and a stronger Taliban. There's no promising indication that our military operations can improve the situation, no matter how many troops are added. If ever the Afghanistan war ever had any legitimacy, it's irreversibly gone.”--Sonali Kolhatkar, Foreign Policy In Focus, 11/2/09

“Our troops are fighting people who are fighting us because we're occupying them. ... What we are doing there doesn't attain any strategic value or any goals for the United States.”-- Matthew Hoh, U.S. diplomat to Afghanistan, who resigned on Sept. 10, 2009

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Did you know that the American tax payer is not only funding the American forces in Afghanistan, but are also funding the Taliban fighters?

• Virtually every major project [in Afghanistan] includes a healthy cut for the insurgents. Call it protection money, call it extortion, or, as the Taliban themselves prefer to term it, “spoils of war,” the fact remains that international donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy.”--Reuters, 8/27/09

  We've been training young men to fight in Afghanistan for decades, "and look where it's gotten us. An overwhelming number of men trained by the U.S. go on to fight for the Taliban instead, which was itself originally trained by the U.S.”--former Marine Devon Read, quoted by Ryan Grim at Huffington Post, 11/2/09

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  Did you know that US and NATO forces in Afghanistan already outnumber Taliban fighters by a margin of four to one? If you count the Afghan security forces and police, the ratio is more like twelve to one.

  Did you know the US Commander in Afghanistan has requested up to 80,000 additional troops (AP, 10/14/09).

  “It's impossible to regain the initiative by introducing more foreign forces, which will only breed more resentment and more recruits for the enemy. The Soviets tried the exact same thing in Afghanistan in the 1980s with disastrous results.”-- Ljubomir Stojadinovic, a military analyst and guerrilla warfare expert from Serbia, AP, 10/28/09

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  Did you know:

  It costs $1,300,000 to keep one American soldier in Afghanistan for a year? (U.S. Congressional Research service).

  “[A] gallon of fuel costs the military about $400 by the time it arrives in the remote locations in Afghanistan where U.S. troops operate" [In some areas this cost] “might even be as high as $1,000 per gallon.”--Pentagon report to the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee,

  “[In June 2008,] Forty-four trucks and 220,000 gallons of fuel were lost due to attacks or other events while delivering fuel to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.” (Government Accountability Office report published earlier this year)

  The Marines in Afghanistan"reportedly run through some 800,000 gallons of fuel a day.

  --The Hill, 10/16/09

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  Did you know that even though the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act provides $680.2 billion for the military, the Pentagon is expected to ask for another $50 billion (in addition to the $130 billion authorized in October) to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? (NY Times, 11/4/09)

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  Did you know that the same nation that can afford to waste hundreds of billions of dollars on wars can't afford to provide healthcare for its citizens, or rebuild its infrastructure (CNN, 12/5/08), or even feed its hungry (“Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High”, NY Times, 11/16/09)?

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  Did you know that you can call your Senators and Representative at the Congressional switchboard ((202) 224-3121), or reach the Obama White House at (202) 456-1111?

  President Obama says that he is still weeks away from a decision on Afghanistan--So call today, and let him know that the United States has wasted enough money on George W. Bush's misadventures in the Mideast. We have sacrificed enough lives. Enough is enough.

  
  
  
  Authors Bio:
  
  

  Mick Youther is an American citizen, an independent voter, a veteran, a parent, a scientist, a writer, and all-around nice guy who has been roused from a comfortable apathy by the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration.