Tell Congress: Investigate the Afghanistan Papers and End Endless Wars!
(February 1, 2020) — Last month, a US airstrike in Herat, Afghanistan killed 10 unnamed Afghan civilians, including three children. Of the 7,423 bombs dropped on Afghanistan last year, it’s hard to find any real information about the impacts on the people of Afghanistan beyond these numbers. It’s been hard to find out any truths about the war at all.
That was until the Afghanistan Papers dropped — exposing that senior US officials withheld key pieces of information for the past 18 years, including that the war was unwinnable, failing every single metric.
In other words: the Afghanistan Papers exposed that the US war in Afghanistan has been — and still is today — built entirely on blatant lies.
We HAVE to use the momentum of the Afghanistan Papers to push as hard as we can to end the endless US war in Afghanistan. This starts with hauling the liars who have been enabling this endless war into Congress to say publicly, under oath, what we now know they admit behind closed doors. It’s time for the truth.
“We didn’t know what we were doing” said Douglas Lute, a three-star Army general who served as the White House’s Afghan war czar during the Bush and Obama administrations.
This is just one line in the Afghanistan Paper’s more than 2,000 pages of previously unpublished notes of interviews with people who played a direct role in the war, from generals and diplomats to aid workers and Afghan officials.
It’s hard to comprehend because this harrowing reality — alongside the facts of the Afghanistan war — is sickening.
18
years of US occupation.
At least 160,000 Afghan and US casualties.
At least $1.8 trillion spent.
A war now fought by US servicemembers who
weren’t even born when it began.
An unwinnable war.
What’s more difficult to understand is why, when the vast majority of the US public, Congress, US presidential candidates all want THIS WAR TO END, it hasn’t ended yet.
And I’ll tell you. It’s because we haven’t made it end yet. So this year, we are going to do everything we can to end it.
On every must-pass piece of defense-related legislation, we will push to remove troops and to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Military Force – the law that keeps this war going. We will put ending the war in front of members of Congress.
That’s why today we are pushing the House and Senate Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, and Intelligence Committees to investigate the Afghanistan Papers, demanding an end to the days when they can lie in public while admitting the truth behind closed doors. Are you with me?
When the Pentagon Papers dropped in 1971, outrage exploded across the country about the lies that kept the Vietnam War going. Today, the Afghanistan Papers barely filled headlines for a week, breaking a murmur only for antiwar and veteran communities.
Perhaps it’s because, sadly, people today just expect the government to lie to us. But these lies have deadly consequences, and it’s up to us to demand the truth. It’s on you and me to end the US war and push for peace in Afghanistan.
Thank you for working for peace,
Stephen, Kate, Tara, and the Win Without War team
ACTION: Tell Congress: Investigate the Afghanistan Papers NOW and End Endless Wars!
The Afghanistan Papers proved that ongoing US war in Afghanistan is built on LIES. Let’s use this momentum to end this endless war.
The Afghanistan Papers have exposed the fact that senior US officials withheld key pieces of information for the past 18 years, including that the war was unwinnable, failing every single metric.
In other words: the Afghanistan Papers exposed that US war in Afghanistan has been — and still is today — built entirely on blatant lies.
We HAVE to use the momentum of the Afghanistan Papers to push as hard as we can to end the endless US war in Afghanistan. This starts with hauling the liars who have been enabling this endless war into Congress to say publicly, under oath, what we now know they admit behind closed doors. It is time for the truth.
ACTION: Click to sign THE LETTER
To members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Armed Services Committee, and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Armed Services Committee, and Select Committee on Intelligence:
The truths of war exposed in the Afghanistan Papers are a stain on human history and show that Congress MUST end the war in Afghanistan. I urge you to open public investigations into the revelations revealed by the Afghanistan Papers!
