Afghanistan Debate Begins in U.S. House Early This Afternoon

"Today is our first opportunity to send the message not only to the White House but to the world that America is ready to work with the world community to meet the challenges of global security" -Dennis Kucinich

American and International Security Assistance Forces on a flightline near Mazur-e-Shariff, Afghanistan. Salem-News.com photo by Tim King

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - This afternoon we're going to have a vote on whether or not the United States gets out of Afghanistan or stays there indefinitely.

It's time that Congress weighed in. The Constitution makes it very clear that the War Powers are vested in the Congress. Unfortunately, a series of Presidents have made decisions to take the country into a war and to keep the country in war without seeking Congress' expressed permission. So this is, in fact, a Constitutional issue and that should be of interest to members of Congress from all over the nation, whatever their political persuasion.

And it should also be of interest to people that we can't afford this war. When you consider the fact that you have 47 million Americans who don't have any health care, they don't have it because they can't afford the premiums. You have 15 million Americans out of work. You have another 10 million Americans, at least, who could be losing their homes this year due to foreclosure. You would think that we have other priorities. You would think that it would be time for us to focus on things here at home.

Well, today is our first opportunity to send the message not only to the White House but to the world that America is ready to work with the world community to meet the challenges of global security.

But we're also going to start taking care of things at home. Because Americans deserve the security of a job, the security of housing and the security of health care. And we have to start arranging our priorities to make sure that we take care of people here in this country instead of trying to tell people all over the world how they ought to live.

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