{"id":4938,"date":"2011-05-28T02:07:25","date_gmt":"2011-05-28T09:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4938"},"modified":"2011-05-28T02:07:25","modified_gmt":"2011-05-28T09:07:25","slug":"action-alert-its-time-to-end-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/28\/action-alert-its-time-to-end-the-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Action Alert: It&#8217;s Time to End the War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">In 2008, I was still suffering from Republican representation, so I volunteered for Jeff Merkley\u2019s Senate campaign, helped oust goose-stepping Gordon Smith, and now enjoy 100% representation by progressive Democrats.&#160; Yesterday I received a form email from Jeff, with a petition to end the war in Afghanistan and request to spread it around.&#160; I am proud to do so.<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Dear Tom,<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"28Merkley\" border=\"0\" alt=\"28Merkley\" align=\"left\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/28Merkley.jpg\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" \/>Nearly ten years ago, America went to war in Afghanistan to destroy the safe havens of the terrorist organization that attacked us on September 11th and bring the perpetrators to justice. We succeeded. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><strong>Now it&#8217;s time to end that war.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\" face=\"Tahoma\">In July, President Obama is scheduled to begin a troop withdrawal, but he hasn&#8217;t said whether that will be a token change, or a real change in policy. <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/e2ma.net\/go\/9395757481\/3672509\/106360753\/13974\/b64\/aHR0cDovL2xpdmFibGV3b3JsZC5vcmcvYWN0aW9uL3BldGl0aW9ucy91c190cm9vcF93aXRoZHJhd2FsX2FmZ2hhbmlzdGFuX3BldGl0aW9uLw==\" target=\"_blank\"><font size=\"2\" face=\"Tahoma\">Join me, the Council for a Livable World, and thousands of your fellow citizens and tell the President that we want a significant troop withdrawal in July to start ending our war in Afghanistan.<\/font><\/a><font color=\"#0066cc\" size=\"2\" face=\"Tahoma\"> <\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\">We have accomplished our goals in Afghanistan. According to leading military experts, al Qaeda has fewer than 100 operatives there. And its leader, Osama Bin Laden, was killed just a few short weeks ago in a brave attack by dedicated American military personnel.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\">A prolonged, expensive nation-building undertaking in Afghanistan doesn&#8217;t make us safer.<\/font><\/strong><\/span><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\"> It is telling that Bin Laden was found in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. Terrorist groups are no longer bound to nations and neither should be our efforts to stop them.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\">I&#8217;m sending a letter from a group of Senators to the President to tell him that we think America can&#8217;t afford nation building in a place riddled with corruption, divided by ancient conflicts, and where the government isn&#8217;t a reliable partner. <\/font><span style=\"text-align: left\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><strong>We&#8217;ve got plenty of nation building to do here at home. <\/strong><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"text-align: left; font-family: \"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\" color=\"#0066cc\"><a href=\"http:\/\/e2ma.net\/go\/9395757481\/3672509\/106360754\/13974\/b64\/aHR0cDovL2xpdmFibGV3b3JsZC5vcmcvYWN0aW9uL3BldGl0aW9ucy91c190cm9vcF93aXRoZHJhd2FsX2FmZ2hhbmlzdGFuX3BldGl0aW9uLw==\" target=\"_blank\">If you agree, please visit LivableWorld.org to add your voice urging the President to begin bringing American troops home in July.<\/a><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Our men and women in uniform bravely and skillfully undertake any mission we set out for them. They can and will keep after terrorists wherever they may be, but that doesn&#8217;t require us pouring American blood or hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into Afghanistan indefinitely.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\">I have asked President Barack Obama to stick with a schedule that starts bringing our troops home this summer and ends our involvement in Afghanistan responsibly by 2014. <\/font><\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/e2ma.net\/go\/9395757481\/3672509\/106360755\/13974\/b64\/aHR0cDovL2xpdmFibGV3b3JsZC5vcmcvYWN0aW9uL3BldGl0aW9ucy91c190cm9vcF93aXRoZHJhd2FsX2FmZ2hhbmlzdGFuX3BldGl0aW9uLw==\" target=\"_blank\">I hope you will join me in this effort.<\/a><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\" color=\"#0066cc\"><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><strong>Ten years is more than long enough &#8211; let&#8217;s bring our troops home.<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Thanks for your support,<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 13pt\"><em>Jeff Merkley<\/em><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">&#160;<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: normal; margin: 0in; font-family: \" align=\"left\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\">P.S. &#8211; The military is reportedly pushing hard for the President to keep the status quo. We need as many voices as we can get in our chorus. <\/font><\/font><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"Tahoma\">Please forward this email to your friends and family<\/font><\/font><font face=\"Tahoma\"><font style=\"font-size: 10pt\"> and encourage them to show the President that America is ready to end the war!<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I invite you to click one of the links and join me.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2008, I was still suffering from Republican representation, so I volunteered for Jeff Merkley\u2019s Senate campaign, helped oust goose-stepping Gordon Smith, and now enjoy 100% representation by progressive Democrats.&#160; Yesterday I received a form email from Jeff, with a petition to end the war in Afghanistan and request to spread it around.&#160; I am <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/28\/action-alert-its-time-to-end-the-war\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}