In response to President Barack Obama announcing on Thursday that he will “maintain our current posture of 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of next year,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) issued a statement the same day calling on Congress to “take responsibility for this conflict and vote on an Authorization for the Use of Military Force that clearly defines the current mission and ensures that there is a clear strategy for withdrawal.”
McGovern and a bipartisan group of House of Representatives members have for years been emphatically both opposing the repeated elongation of the United States military action in Afghanistan and pushing for Congress to deny Obama a bank check in regard to the Afghanistan War.
Read McGovern’s complete statement, from his House website, here:
Today, the longest war in American history just got longer. I am extremely troubled by President Obama’s announcement that the U.S. will abandon our planned military withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2016 and instead will keep nearly ten thousand troops in the country through at least 2016.
Our mission in Afghanistan lacks the clarity that the American people and our brave men and women in uniform deserve. I am disappointed that after 14 years of war, we are talking about continuing our military presence there instead of finding the political solution that is so desperately needed.
Every American life lost in this war is a tragic reminder that it is long past time for Congress to act. We must take responsibility for this conflict and vote on an Authorization for the Use of Military Force that clearly defines the current mission and ensures that there is a clear strategy for withdrawal. We cannot wait any longer.
