Win Without War – 2018-11-07 23:09:08
https://act.winwithoutwar.org/act/dear-new-congress-end-war-afghanistan
ACTION ALERT: Tell New House to End the US War in Afghanistan!
Win Without War
PETITION:
“Dear New Congress: End the War in Afghanistan.”
(November 7, 2018) — This. Is. HUGE. Last night, control of the House of Representatives flipped. And today, we woke up in a world where we can end the United States’ longest war.
The day before the election, Mayor Brent Taylor of North Ogden, Utah was killed in his fourth deployment in Afghanistan. [1] After seventeen years, this terrible, failed war is STILL tragically costing lives and throwing trillions of dollars down the drain.
But for the first time in years, we have a clear chance to end the war in Afghanistan.
Some new members of Congress stepping into office this January were preteens when this war started. They’re ready to end this war. You and I are ready to end this war. And we have the political power to do it.
But there’s a million things crowding the new Congress’ agenda. We’ve got to start driving grassroots pressure immediately to make sure ending the war in Afghanistan is a top priority when Congress heads to D.C. in January. That’s where you come in.
On Tuesday, control of the House of Representatives flipped. In January, we will have the political power to end the United States’ longest war.
But there’s a million things crowding onto the new Congress’ agenda between now and January. We need to make sure ending this war stays high on the list.
In many places last night, the forces of hate, fear-mongering, and voter suppression carried the day. That pain — especially for our communities most under attack from hateful words and hateful policies — is real.
And even with the shifting balance of power in Congress, we are looking at a tough battle to end the war in Afghanistan.
Already, vultures like disgraced former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince are swooping in to try to profit off of this tragic war. Prince just hired a lobbyist whose entire job will be persuading members of Congress to hand him personal control of the war in Afghanistan. [2]
But the House just flipped, and that changes everything.
Anti-war champion Rep. Jim McGovern has tried to end this war for years, but he was blocked by the GOP-controlled House Rules Committee. But guess what? Now he’s in CHARGE of that committee, the very one that decides whether or not Congress gets to finally vote on ending our longest war. And if we speak up right now, we can make sure the rest of our new Congress is on board, too.
What’s more, if we can win on Afghanistan, we can start a progressive foreign policy tsunami. That vote could start Congress on a path to rein in the runaway Trump war machine and take back their authority on warmaking across the board. But to get there, we need to start pressuring the new Congress now.
ACTION: Sign now: Congress, don’t listen to Erik Prince. End the United States’ longest war.
Thank you for working for peace,
Kate, Stephen, Cassandra, and the Win Without War team
[1] Salt Lake Tribune, “North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor killed in Afghanistan in apparent insider attack”
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/11/03/utah-national-guardsman/
[2] Politico, “Erik Prince lobbies up”
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2018/10/24/erik-prince-lobbies-up-387650
Erik Prince Lobbies Up
Theodoric Meyer / Politico
(October 24, 2018) — Erik Prince, the founder of the security contractor once known as Blackwater, has hired a lobbyist to help him sell his plan to privatize the Afghan war.
Ron Phillips of Gavel Resources, a former House Armed Services Committee staffer, started representing Prince in September and reported lobbying Congress and the Defense Department on his behalf in a disclosure filing.
In an interview, Phillips said he’s set up meetings for Prince with members of Congress and administration officials so Prince can discuss his proposal to turn much of the Afghan war over to private security contractors.
“There is no ask other than he’s providing information,” Phillips said. Bill Jarrell, a former aide to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and a Gavel partner, is working on the effort, too.
Prince has been talking up his vision for remaking the Afghan war for more than a year. “My proposal is for a sustainable footprint of 2,000 American Special Operations and support personnel, as well as a contractor force of less than 6,000 (far less than the 26,000 in country now),” Prince wrote last year in an op-ed in The New York Times. “This team would provide a support structure for the Afghans, allowing the United States’ conventional forces to return home.”
He’s made his case to Afghan leaders in Kabul in recent months, and now he’s focused on winning over Washington. He already has an in with the administration. President Donald Trump has discussed the proposal with Prince’s sister, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, according to Phillips.
“Erik has got his friends and he’s got his foes, but the one thing you cannot deny is he understands unconventional warfare,” Phillips said.
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