Memorial Day 2011

By a vote of 204-215, the House rejected H.AMDT.344 from Reps. James McGovern (D-Mass.) and Justin Amash (R-Mich.) that would have required the Department of Defense to develop a plan for an “accelerated transition of military operations to Afghan authorities.” The final roll call on the vote shows that all but 8 Republicans voted against the accelerated transition and all but 8 Democrats supported it. The amendment to H.R. 1540 (National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012) proposed a plan to speed up the withdrawal and was not an immediate requirement to withdraw forces.

As we near Memorial Day, the number of U.S. troop deaths in the Afghanistan War now exceeds 1,500. This video from Rethink Afghanistan says this should be the last Memorial Day when we put military families through this kind of agony. Bring the troops home.