Feingold, Breaking Washington Taboo, Calls for Afghanistan Withdrawal Timetable

[laststeamtrain]

Robert Naiman

National Coordinator of Just Foreign Policy.
Posted: August 25, 2009 01:10 PM

Feingold, Breaking Washington Taboo, Calls for Afghanistan Withdrawal Timetable

Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin broke a Washington taboo. He called for a "timetable" for withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan.

ABC News reports:

"I think it is time we start discussing a flexible timetable so that people around the world can see when we are going to bring our troops out," said Feingold. "Showing the people there and here that we have a sense about when it is time to leave is one of the best things we can do," he added.

Feingold made the comments in an interview with the editorial board of the Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisconsin. Feingold also said:

"I think (our presence) is increasing the extremism and increasing the resentment toward the United States.

"The idea of an open-ended commitment with no vision of when it will end is a problem. I want a flexible timetable and a public vision of what we intend."

Senator Feingold's statements represent an important breakthrough. Though Feingold has been quite critical of the ongoing military escalation, this is, to my knowledge, the first time he, or any other U.S. Senator, has publicly uttered the word "timetable" in the context of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/feingold-breaking-washing_b_268381.html

[masuki bance]

1. Time to call for an end to the occupation. Good job Russ. nt

[derby378]

2. Either we neutralize al-Qaeda and the Taliban, or we go home

No sense in propping up the government of a Bush puppet just for the hell of it, especially if Karzai is all too willing to make deals with the enemies of women's rights.

[mvd]

3. Yep, Bush ignored Afghanistan because his main priority..

was empire and his oil buddies, not combating terror. Now Obama has a mess there to fix. While I applaud Obama's change in strategy for Afghanistan, IMO it will just build up with nothing really resolved. I think a withdrawal timetable should be set.