BURLINGTON – On Monday, before boarding a flight to Washington, D.C., Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., announced proposals to end the war in Afghanistan.
Welch’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would require the withdrawal of American ground troops within 60 days of enactment. Counter-terrorism troops would remain in Afghanistan.
The congressman plans to introduce the proposal to Congress this week.
“We need a decentralized and dispersed response and that is not 100,000 troops and 100,000 contractors in one country when the threat of terrorism is in many parts of the world,” Welch said. “The goal would be to bring our troops in Afghanistan home.”
Ending the war in Afghanistan was one of the five proposals announced by Rep. Welch. The remaining four include:
- Refocusing America’s policy in Afghanistan by restricting funding to counter-terrorism operations;
- Reasserting Congress’ authority over the military by deleting language in the bill that grants the president broad discretion to launch major military operations without congressional approval;
- Preventing mission creep in Libya by prohibiting funding to deploy, establish or maintain American soldiers or private security contractors on the ground; and
- Cracking down on corruption by banning companies convicted of bribing foreign officials from contracting with the federal government and capping taxpayer-supported contractors’ salaries.
The amendments come on the heels of an attempt to persuade President Barack Obama to pull out of Afghanistan. Welch and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, drafted a letter with bipartisan support asking Obama to shift American tactics from nation building in Afghanistan to targeted counter-terrorism strikes against al-Qaida strongholds. (Six House representatives signed the missive — three Democrats and three Republicans.)
“Nation building is expensive, it’s $2.5 billion dollars or so a week,” Welch said. “It’s not sustainable and many are questioning whether it is effective.”
The planned amendments would shift more American resources towards counter-terrorism efforts, according to Welch.
Welch and Chaffetz’s proposal would amend the defense authorization bill, which approves budgeting expenditures for the Department of Defense. In 2012, the federal agency will receive roughly $690 billion. Over the course of the 10-year war in Afghanistan (the longest war in American history), the United States has spent roughly $386 billion. Current spending levels are about $2.5 billion a week, according to Welch.
Welch questions whether it’s worthwhile to spend money on propping up President Hamid Karzai’s government. In a letter to the President Barack Obama, Welch said the Afghan leader’s “capacity or willingness to curb rampant corruption has evaporated.”
“It does not make sense, it’s not necessary and it’s not achieving the goal of protecting national security,” Welch said.
Welch said comprehensive coordinated intelligence and the use of special forces to identify targets is an effective method of counterterrorism. Welch pointed to the special operations personnel location identification and assassination of Osama bin Laden as a case in point.
Welch said he expects the amendments, which are bipartisan, will get a lot of media attention.
“This is going to be a very busy week on the defense authorization bill. It’s the first moment we’ve had a chance in Congress to reexamine the Afghanistan nation-building policy since the killing of Osama Bin Laden,” Welch said.
