Last week when over 100 veterans chained themselves to the White House gates, protesting passage of a Defense Appropriations Bill and resulting in one of the largest mass arrest in years, there was hardly a whisper in the news. ROP Leader, Mike Edera shares this thought piece for the ROP and progressive community:
The third week of December was dominated by raging debate over extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy, which will cost the nation $150 billion over two years. The liberal websites were awash in outrage. Meanwhile, in the same week, the House and Senate passed a $725 billion 2011 Defense Appropriation Act, which included almost $160 billion to continue the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Doing a Dec 18 search of Commondreams, Buzzflash, Truthout, and Truthdig, the only discussion I find of the Defense Appropriation Bill is about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (allowing gay people to serve in the military), and the Dream Act (helping undocumented immigrant youth to attend college, and to serve in the military), which were both originally included in the Defense Appropriation Bill (The Dream Act was stripped from the Bill. The abolition of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell passed as separate legislation).
Without debate, House approves war funding
Posted : Friday Dec 17, 2010 18:19:48 EST
WASHINGTON — The House on Friday passed legislation that authorizes the Pentagon to spend nearly $160 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this budget year without major restrictions on the conduct of operations.
The 341-48 vote on the defense authorization bill came after House and Senate Democrats agreed to strip several provisions, including one that would have allowed gays to serve openly in the military and another that would have authorized abortions at overseas military facilities.
The provision that would have overturned “don’t ask, don’t tell” was approved as a standalone bill in the House earlier this week and awaits a vote in the Senate.
The spending bill covers the 2011 budget year, which began Oct. 1. The Senate was expected to approve the measure as one of its final acts before adjourning this year.
Congress considers the defense authorization bill to be its primary chance to sway Pentagon policy. While it does not transfer money into Defense Department coffers, it does serve as a blueprint for the defense appropriations bill by authorizing spending levels.
This year’s bill agreed to $725 billion in defense programs, including $158.7 billion for overseas combat.
When Obama was elected, the wars suddenly became ‘our’ wars. Obama promoted a phony Iraq ‘withdrawal’ that only a chump could believe in, and then ESCALATED the Afghan disaster. Around that time, I had an e-mail exchange with someone in the Washington County Democratic Committee who actually told me that we should support Obama’s Afghan policy ‘because the President has more information than we do".