Dems use 10th anniversary to urge end to Afghan war

On the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, a growing chorus of liberal House Democrats is calling for its end.

“Let’s not forget why we entered Afghanistan 10 years ago: to find Osama bin Laden and prevent Al-Qaeda from using the country as a base to attack the United States,” Rep. Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), senior Democrat on the Rules Committee, said Thursday in a statement.

{mosads}”Bin Laden is gone, Al-Qaeda has been scattered around the globe, and yet we continue to risk the lives of brave Americans and squander billions of dollars after a decade of interminable conflict,” she added. “It has to stop.”

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the U.S. simply can’t afford the conflict any longer — an issue he said should resonate with an administration searching for ways to cut deficit spending.

“The national security argument has no credibility,” Grijalva said in a statement. “The economic and human costs in Afghanistan are far too high, crippling our ability to recover from a deep recession.”

Former President George W. Bush launched the war into Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, less than a month after the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. Only the Vietnam War has lasted longer.

President Obama ran his 2008 campaign on a platform of drawing down forces in Iraq while bolstering the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. The administration has set a deadline of pulling most of the troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who visited Afghanistan last spring, told reporters Thursday that she was encouraged by the “progress” she saw “toward taking our troops home.”

“The American people are weary of war, period, and want our troops to come home,” Pelosi said. “We appreciate that the president is winding that war down, and we won’t have many more anniversaries of the longest wars in our country’s history.”

Earlier in the week, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), delivered a sharper message, urging a quick end to both the Afghan and Iraq wars.

“We are now spending $120 billion a year in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And incredibly, President Obama — who I strongly support in general — is contemplating staying in Iraq even longer than George Bush wanted to,” Frank said Tuesday to a crowd of liberal activists gathered in Washington for the Take Back the American Dream conference.

“That is totally unacceptable, and we must make that very clear.”