Code Pink returns

[G_j]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?&entry_id=52727

Drew Joseph: Code Pink returns

Three members of the San Francisco-based anti-war group Code Pink, a fixture of the war debates during the Bush administration, protested calmly behind the witness table before today's Senate hearing on President Obama's Afghanistan decision, holding up signs that read "Surge: Big Mistake" and "This is not the hope you voted for."

The three women, wearing their trademark pink, urged the Senate Armed Services Committee not to vote approve funds for the escalation.

They also directly addressed the three witnesses -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen -- as they took their seats.
"Secretary Gates, this really is a bad idea," said one protestor, who later called Clinton by her first name.

Another protester said that sending 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan defies the original purpose of the war, to root out Al-Qaeda, saying there are only 100 of the foreign terrorists left in Afghanistan.

"They are in Hamburg, they are in Paris, they are in Chicago," she said.

The protestors urged economic and diplomatic methods over military expansion. "What happened to smart power?" she asked. "Wasn't that what Obama was going to be about?"




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http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/02/wright.martin.afghanistan.against.more.troops/


Editor's note: Col. Ann Wright, who served for 29 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves, was one of the first State Department officers to open the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in 2001. She resigned from the State Department in protest the day the Iraq War began. She had served as a diplomat for 16 years and received the State Department's Award for Heroism. Paul Kawika Martin is Peace Action's political director and the founder of the Afghanistan Policy Working Group.
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Don't escalate a failing war
By Ann Wright and Paul Kawika Martin, Special to CNN

December 2, 2009 6:39 a.m. ES

President Obama just announced he plans to send 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan, where hatred of the U.S. grows every day. Next door, nuclear-armed Pakistan tilts toward disaster. It's time for Americans to insist on a nonmilitary way out of this mess.

We recently returned from a CodePink study trip to Afghanistan, and our expertise and experience points to a strategy of transitioning from military to political and economic solutions that will help Afghans while making Americans safer.

The first step in providing Afghans security and weakening the Taliban and violent extremists is to remove recruiting incentives. It's time to stop air and Predator drone strikes that tend to kill, injure and terrorize civilians. It's time to stop arbitrary detentions and harsh treatment of prisoners that would be unacceptable here.

While those in major cities live in relative security, rural Afghans fear violence from insurgents or U.S. and NATO forces. Many fear civil war or the return of the Taliban. Afghanistan requires more trusted Afghan police and security forces. These forces are paid only $110 dollars a month -- not a living wage -- and payments are regularly late. Little wonder these forces are corrupt, poorly motivated and have a high rate of desertion. The Taliban pays its foot soldiers far better.
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[mike_c]

1. good on them-- Code Pink speaks for me....

eom