Kucinich: Prolonging Afghan war a 'threat to our national security'

Far from being a necessary part of the US's national security strategy, the Afghanistan war is actually a threat to it, says Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich.

In a statement released two days after President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop surge for the war effort and a July, 2011, beginning for troop withdrawal, Kucinich argued that extending the war would destabilize the United States at home.

“America is in the fight of its life and that fight is not in Afghanistan -- it's here," Kucinich declared. "We are deeply in debt. Our GDP is down. Our manufacturing is down. Our savings are down. The value of the dollar is down. Our trade deficit is up. Business failures are up. Bankruptcies are up.

“The war is a threat to our national security. We’ll spend over $100 billion next year to bomb a nation of poor people while we reenergize the Taliban, destabilize Pakistan, deplete our army and put more of our soldiers’ lives on the line. Meanwhile, back here in the USA, 15 million people are out of work. People are losing their jobs, their health care, their savings, their investments, and their retirement security. $13 trillion in bailouts for Wall Street, trillions for war; when are we going to start taking care of things here at home?”

Kucinich a seven-term House representative from western Cleveland, has long been a high-profile opponent of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

“The people of Afghanistan don’t want to be saved by us," Kucinich said on the House floor Wednesday. "They want to be saved from us. Our presence and our Predator drones kill countless innocents, creating more US enemies and destabilizing Pakistan."

In September, following a NATO airstrike that killed 95 people, including most of a small Afghan village, Kucinich declared that the war in Afghanistan is "quickly developing into a tragedy of monumental proportions. It is time for the US to end this war and bring our troops home.”