Labor Notes Update

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Escalating the War in Afghanistan Is Wrong


Jim Cavanaugh December 2, 2009

President Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan
is wrong for many reasons. At its October 15 meeting,
the Executive Board of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO
adopted a simple statement that sums up many of those reasons:
“We need to stop the war in Afghanistan
and focus the nation’s attention on the
fight for jobs, education, health care and pensions.”

And, as Wisconsin Rep. David Obey says:
“There ain’t going to be no money for nothing
  if we pour it all into Afghanistan.”

Senator Russ Feingold correctly objects from a
foreign policy and national security point of view:
“It’s an expensive gamble to undertake armed nation-
building on behalf of a corrupt government of
questionable legitimacy.”

It’s wrong because the American people elected Obama,
with a mandate-sized majority, to end these wars,
reform health care, and ameliorate the effects of the
economic depression, and certainly not to escalate the war.

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And finally, but absolutely not
least,  it is wrong because it will
lead to many more serious
physical and psychological
wounds and deaths for Afghan
citizens and American soldiers.



[Jim Cavanaugh is president of the
South Central Federation of Labor in Madison, Wisconsin.]

http://labornotes.org/blogs/2009/12/escalating-war-afghanistan-wrong