Sunday, June 16, 2013

Which Nine Democrats Love the War in Afghanistan So Much They Don't Want It To End?

Over the past few days, I have written a few diaries about the NDAA voting in the House of Representatives. On Thursday, I wrote about the House's vote against closing Gitmo.
However, over the course of the two long days of voting on amendments for the NDAA, a few good amendments did manage to make it through.  I'd like to highlight an amendment put forth by progressive Democrat Jim McGovern (MA-02).  The following is the official description of the amendment offered by the Library of Congress's archive.
An amendment numbered 10 printed in Part B of House Report 113-108 to require the President to complete the accelerated transition of combat operations from U.S. Armed Forces to the Government of Afghanistan no later than by the end of 2013; the accelerated transition of military and security operations by the end of 2014, including the redeployment of U.S. troops; and to pursue robust negotiations to address Afghanistan's and the region's security and stability. The amendment establishes the sense of Congress that should the President determine the necessity for post 2014 deployment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Congress should vote to authorize such a presence and mission by no later than June 2014.
To summarize, there are three main parts:
(1) requiring Obama to complete the transition of combat operations to the government of Afghanistan by the end of this year,
(2) requiring Obama to complete the transition of military and security and military operations by the end of next year, and
(3) requiring Obama to seek Congressional authorization for any post-2014 deployment.  More succinctly, the amendment says to the President, "End the war already, and you have to consult Congress first (unlike you did in Libya)."

The amendment passed by a large margin: 305 to 121.  185 Democrats and 120 Republicans supported it, and 112 Republicans and 9 Democrats opposed it.

That's right 9 Democrats and 112 Republicans love the war in Afghanistan so much that they can't bear to see it end.   To put this in perspective, these 9 Democrats were so conservative that they voted against a bill that even a majority of Republicans supported.  At least on this bill, these 9 Democrats were more conservative than Paul Ryan, who supported it.

Let's name and shame those nine warmongers:

John Barrow (GA-12)
Corrine Brown (FL-05)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Bill Enyart (IL-12)
Pete Gallego (TX-23)
Jim Matheson (UT-02)
Bill Owens (NY-21)
Dutch Ruppersberger (MD-02)
Terri Sewell (AL-07)

If you are in any of their districts, give them a call, and let them know what you think of their vote.
If I have time later, I might list the Republican opponents of the bill as well.

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