Afghanistan Killing Not Just Soldiers, But Millions of Good U.S. Jobs

How many jobs would $33 billion buy? A million? We'll never know, because it's all going to buy another 1,000 dead American soldiers in a treacherous clusterfuck we can't win.

John Nichols in The Nation:

An additional $33 billion in spending for President Obama's occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq -- and they are now his occupations as much as they once were George Bush's -- was approved by the House Thursday night as part of a broad "emergency" supplemental spending bill.

But the money for the Afghanistan quagmire did not come without a fight.

Two-thirds of House Democrats and nine Republicans voted for an amendment sponsored by Appropriations Committee chair David Obey, D-Wisconsin, and Congressmen Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, and Walter Jones, R-North Carolina, that would have required the president to rapidly begin developing a plan for the safe, orderly and expeditious redeployment of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The Obey-McGovern-Jones amendment also called for more detailed reporting to Congress on the status of the occupation and for stricter congressional oversight of private contractors working on the ground in Afghanistan in order to address charges of corruption, waste, fraud and abuse.

The amendment received 162 votes, while 260 members opposed it.

You will be stunned to hear that all five of Kentucky's repug congress critters (including Disgusting DINO Ben Chandler, who has come out of the closet) voted against this mildest-possible effort to escape that quagmire; only John Yarmuth voted for it.

Nichols again:

What was significant was the partisan breakdown.

Among Democrats, 153 backed the amendment, while 98 opposed it.

Among Republicans, 9 backed the amendment while 162 opposed it.

So President Obama is now relying on Republicans to provide unquestioning support for his war, while most Democrats want to see an exit strategy developed.

Significantly, 100 members of the House (93 Democrats, 7 Republicans) voted for an amendment offered by California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, which proposed to fully fund a withdrawal plan.

Again, Yarmuth voted in favor, Wire Hanger and his BFFs voted no.

Twenty-five members (22 Democrats and three Republicans) cast the boldest anti-war votes, backing an amendment to strike Afghanistan funding from the supplemental bill. Another 22 members (all Democrats) voted "present," suggesting their sympathy with the proposal.

What does it all add up to? Congress has not checked or balanced the president, and that is disappointing -- although opportunities still exist to do so, as the supplemental spending bill now must go back to the Senate for another vote.

What should be understood, however, is that the president's own party is losing patience with his misguided war strategies.

Read the whole thing.