CommonDreams – 2008-01-13 23:36:24

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0110-10.htm

WASHINGTON (January 10, 2008) — Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) released the following statement after learning of the Pentagon’s plan to send 3,000 more Marines to Afghanistan this April:

‘The only thing this troop increase is going to achieve is stretching our military forces even thinner than they are already being stretched,’ Kucinich said.

News reports today state that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is likely to send 3,000 more forces toAfghanistan in April. These troops will be used tofight another Taliban offensive that is expected this spring and has occurred in previous years.

‘It has been proven time and time again that troop surges don’t work. The fruitless war in Afghanistan is not being won militarily,’ Kucinich said.

Today’s news of a troop surge comes on the one-year anniversary of President Bush’s call for a troop surge in Iraq of 20,000 additional forces.

‘Under our watch corruption and chaos in Afghanistan has developed and flourished. As the United States seeks to abate terrorism we must also learn from the consequences of a war-based foreign policy.

‘After six years of destruction and death the United States should discontinue this immoral war and immediately begin high-level diplomatic negotiations with the countries of the Middle East in an effort to establish true stability and peace in the region. Our troops cannot afford to wait,’ Kucinich said.

Posted in accordance with Title 17, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.