The California Democratic Party
Adopts Progressive Caucus Resolution
"End the U.S. Occupation
& Air War in Afghanistan"
Press Releases, etc.
Press Release - Progressive Caucus of the Callifornia Democratic Party [word] [pdf]
Congressional Progressive Caucus Letter to President Obama [pdf]
Articles
Resolution Adopted by the California Democratic Party
November 15, 2009
End the U.S. Occupation & Air War in Afghanistan
Whereas, The California Democratic Party, concerned citizens and lawmakers are calling for a U.S.A exit strategy from Afghanistan that will end the occupation and air war while ensuring the safety and security of our troops, our nation, and the region; while even the U.S. Ambassador General Karl Eikenberry expresses concern about corruption in the Afghan government and our inability to stabilize the situation; and
Whereas, the plight of women in Afghanistan is such that they continue to bear an especially heavy price under an eight-year occupation, and that far from eradicating the Taliban and other insurgencies, the presence of foreign troops has instead strengthened them, creating greater insecurity, death and impoverishment of the Afghan people; and
Whereas, a majority of Americans are increasingly disturbed about the toll the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan is taking on the honorable young men and women who have been killed and wounded and on their families as our involvement there continues to cost billion each month while the United States and particularly the State of California are in an economic crisis without money to fund domestic needs;
Therefore be it Resolved, that the California Democratic Party, in addition to reiterating its support for a time-table for withdrawal of our military personnel, calls for an end to the use of mercenary contractors, as well as an end to air strikes that cause heavy civilian casualties, and urges our President to oversee a redirection of our funding and resources to include an increase in humanitarian and developmental aid, multi-party talks aimed at ensuring a democratic and legitimate representation of the people of Afghanistan, as well as multi-party regional diplomacy for the safety and stability of neighboring countries; and
Be it Further Resolved that a copy of this resolution shall be sent to the California Democratic Congressional delegation, as well as to President Obama.
Karen Bernal, AD 5, Chair, Progressive Caucus, Norman Solomon AD 6, Co-Chair, Foreign Policy Committee, Progressive Caucus, Marcy Winograd, AD 53, Co-Chair, Foreign Policy Committee, Progressive Caucus – Endorsed by: Region 17, Region 10 delegations, Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains; Anna Givens, AD 7; Julie Combs, AD 7; Lynn Hamilton, CDP Executive Board Member, Sonoma County
Biggest State Party to Obama: Get Out of Afghanistan
Monday 16 November 2009
by: Norman Solomon
This week begins with a significant new straw in the political wind for President Obama to consider. The California Democratic Party has just sent him a formal and clear message: Stop making war in Afghanistan.
Overwhelmingly approved on Sunday by the California Democratic Party's 300-member statewide executive board, the resolution is titled "End the US Occupation and Air War in Afghanistan."
The resolution supports "a timetable for withdrawal of our military personnel" and calls for "an end to the use of mercenary contractors as well as an end to air strikes that cause heavy civilian casualties." Advocating multiparty talks inside Afghanistan, the resolution also urges Obama "to oversee a redirection of our funding and resources to include an increase in humanitarian and developmental aid."
While Obama weighs Afghanistan policy options, the California Democratic Party's adoption of the resolution is the most tangible indicator yet that escalation of the US war effort can only fuel opposition within the president's own party - opposition that has already begun to erode his political base.
Participating in a long-haul struggle for progressive principles inside the party, I co-authored the resolution with savvy longtime activists Karen Bernal of Sacramento and Marcy Winograd of Los Angeles.
Bernal, the chair of the state party's Progressive Caucus, said on Sunday night, "Today's vote formalized and amplified what had been, up to now, an unspoken but profoundly understood reality - that there is no military solution in Afghanistan. What's more, the vote signified an acceptance of what is sure to be a continued and growing culture of resistance to current administration policies on the matter within the party. This is absolutely huge. Now, there can be no disputing the fact that the overwhelming majority of California Democrats are not only saying no to escalation, but no to our continued military presence in Afghanistan, period. The California Democratic Party has spoken, and we want the rest of the country to know."
Winograd, who is running hard as a grassroots candidate in a primary race against pro-war incumbent Rep. Jane Harman, had this to say, "We need progressives in every state Democratic Party to pass a similar resolution calling for an end to the US occupation and air war in Afghanistan. Bring the veterans to the table, bring our young into the room, and demand an end to this occupation that only destabilizes the region. There is no military solution, only a diplomatic one that requires we cease our role as occupiers if we want our voices to be heard. Yes, this is about Afghanistan - but it's also about our role in the world at large. Do we want to be global occupiers seizing scarce resources or global partners in shared prosperity? I would argue a partnership is not only the humane choice, but also the choice that grants us the greatest security."
Speaking to The Resolutions Committee of the state party on Saturday, former Marine Cpl. Rick Reyes movingly described his experiences as a warrior in Afghanistan that led him to question and then oppose what he now considers to be an illegitimate US occupation of that country.
Another voice of disillusionment reached party delegates when Bernal distributed a copy of the recent resignation letter from senior US diplomat Matthew Hoh, sent after five months of work on the ground in Afghanistan. "I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our young men and women in Afghanistan," he wrote. "If honest, our stated strategy of securing Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda resurgence or regrouping would require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, etc. Our presence in Afghanistan has only increased destabilization and insurgency in Pakistan where we rightly fear a toppled or weakened Pakistani government may lose control of its nuclear weapons."
Hoh's letter added, "I do not believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex, opaque and Sisyphean mission as the US military has received in Afghanistan." And he wrote, "Thousands of our men and women have returned home with physical and mental wounds, some that will never heal or will only worsen with time. The dead return only in bodily form to be received by families who must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can anymore be made."
From their own vantage points, many of the California Democratic Party leaders who voted to approve the out-of-Afghanistan resolution on November 15 have gone through a similar process. They've come to see the touted reasons for the US war effort as specious, the mission as Sisyphean and the consequences as profoundly unacceptable.
Sometime in the next few days, President Obama is likely to learn that the California Democratic Party has approved an official resolution titled "End the US Occupation and Air War in Afghanistan." But will he really get the message?
Democrats to Obama: Get Out of Afghanistan
The California Democratic Party speaks with an loud voice in national politics. It is, by any reasonable measure, the biggest party in the biggest state in the nation. And it is a well-organized, forward-looking organization that since the 1950s has had a tradition of delivering vital messages from the base to national Democratic leaders. Indeed, in the 1960s, California Democrats were among the first and loudest critics of President Lyndon Johnson's decision to expand the war in Vietnam. They were not merely opposed to the war; they were worried, wisely, that committing resources, governing energy and political capital to an unwise and unnecessary war would undermine the ability of an otherwise popular Democratic president to deliver on his ambitious domestic agenda.
With their history and their heft in mind, it is reasonable to say that when California Democrats take a strong stand on a contentious issues, it matters -- both as a signal with regard to popular sentiment within the party and as an indicator of the issues that could cause political headaches for a Democratic president.
So what does the California Democratic Party have to say about the global conflict that many believe could be for Barack Obama's presidency what Vietnam was for Lyndon Johnson's?
"End the U.S. Occupation and Air War in Afghanistan." That's the title of a resolution endorsed over the weekend by the 300-member executive board of the California party. The resolution calls for establishing "a timetable for withdrawal of our military personnel" and seeks "an end to the use of mercenary contractors as well as an end to air strikes that cause heavy civilian casualties."
In place of a continuing U.S. military presence, the California Democrats are urging Obama "to oversee a redirection of our funding and resources to include an increase in humanitarian and developmental aid." That's sound advice for a president who is wrestling with the issue of how to respond to a request from some military commanders for a surge of more troops into what looks to a many savvy observers like a quagmire.
Among those speaking for the resolution was former Marine Corporal Rick Reyes, who described how his experience in Afghanistan led him to the conclusion that the U.S. occupation was illegitimate. "There is no military solution in Afghanistan," said Reyes, a Los Angeles native. "The problems in Afghanistan are social problems that a military cannot fix." An Afghanistan and Iraq veteran, Reyes was particularly blunt in his criticism of the corrupt regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The veteran told members of the California party's executive board that: "We dishonor the patriotism and the sense of justice of our brave men and women by sending them to fight, proclaiming that they sacrifice for democracy and national security when really they struggle and die in support of nothing more than a proven criminal regime."
In addition to bringing Reyes to the executive committee session, proponents of the resolution showed clips of Robert Greenwald's groundbreaking documentary "Rethink Afghanistan" to drive home their points.
The resolution was co-authored by writer and filmmaker Norman Solomon, key player in the "Health Care Not Warfare" campaign of Progressive Democrats of America who was an Obama delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, along with Karen Bernal, who chairs the party's Progressive Caucus, and congressional candidate Marcy Winograd.
Winograd, who is challenging Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman, a war supporter, in a 2010 primary in a Los Angeles area district, called on state parties across the country to send similar anti-war messages.
"We need progressives in every state Democratic Party to pass a similar resolution calling for an end to the U.S. occupation and air war in Afghanistan," said Winograd. "Bring the veterans to the table, bring our young into the room, and demand an end to this occupation that only destabilizes the region. There is no military solution, only a diplomatic one that requires we cease our role as occupiers if we want our voices to be heard. Yes, this is about Afghanistan -- but it's also about our role in the world at large. Do we want to be global occupiers seizing scarce resources or global partners in shared prosperity? I would argue a partnership is not only the humane choice, but also the choice that grants us the greatest security."
