The Washington Post reports today that the House passed another appropriation for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, this time for $37 billion.
The House on Tuesday approved spending an additional $37 billion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, overcoming the opposition of some Democrats who have concluded that the Afghan conflict is unwinnable.
We've noted Peter's war votes before, but I think it's important to note that, once again, Peter Welch has voted against continuing the funding for the wars.
You can see the roll-call vote results here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll474.xml
To Representative Welch: thanks for keeping the faith with your Vermont voters!
to the word ‘weasel’ making it into the comments on this post… 5,4,3,2,1…
I’ve been critical of him recently, but here at least he showed the courage to properly represent the sentiments of a majority of his constituents (and the good ol’ common sense) to vote against throwing good money after bad.
Now, if he and the rest of the progressive caucus could only force the rest of the D’s to put forward a bill that would actively end the mess we’re in with our pointless engagement in Afghanistan… but for now, too many of them appear eager to be seen as hawks, because they apparently think that killing people and blowing up shit thousands of miles away will play so well with their target audience of laid-off and struggling voters in the coming mid-terms. Go figure.
It was an ill-advised knee-jerk which unfortunately has long lasting implications. However, getting Welch to concede that at this point is probably just misspent energy. If nothing else, it may have been a learning experience for the freshman Congressman.
It’s great to see that he is stepping up to vote bravely on this. Let’s hope this signals a major gut-clinch moving forward.
Okay, great, Welch voted against this round of war funding. Thank you, Congressman Welch.
But there’s much, much more he can and must do to atone for his previous war-funding votes and his continued belief in the fairy tales of “timelines” as proscribed by the new Dems of war (read: Obama and Congress).
So, yes, thank him for this vote, but push him to go further– much further. And he could start by joining the “Out of Afghanistan Caucus” and its many initiatives to not only stop the war funding but bring the troops home now. He could also join those who are seeking an investigation into the thousands of innocent civilians that our so-called “honorable troops” have been killing in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
When people stop pushing, politicians like Welch stop making his baby-steps toward sane policies.
Keep pushing. And hard. I think they call that Democracy.
I work on, there’s not a better Congressman in Washington. Doesn’t just vote the right way, he does the hard work to be effective. Can’t say enough good things about him and his staff.
…I applaud Peter’s vote on the appropriations. But why did he vote against Dennis’ resolution to withdraw troops participating in our “secret war” in Pakistan?