Fifteen Congresspeople Propose Obama Submit Exit Strategy for Afghanistan

According to newspaper The Hill, fifteen representatives gathered today to draw attention to a letter they are writing to President Obama asking him to "reconsider military escalation" in Afghanistan. Signatores of the letter include Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D) of Ohio and Congressman Ron Paul (R) of Texas.

Paul has been a strong critic of non-interventionist foreign policy in contradiction to the pre-eminent strike ideology perpetuated by the Bush administration. He claims that the same policy is being continued by President Obama.

The Hill reports that Paul said, "“I see what’s going on in Afghanistan. It has nothing to do with the al Qaeda, it has nothing to do with bin Laden. This is occupation and it’s a continuation of the Bush policy,” Paul said. “I think our effort here in writing this letter is just urging caution.”

Secretary of Defense Gates earlier this month told reporters in France that it is too early to set a timetable for withdrawal in Afghanistan. Some military experts have advocated the major basing of U.S. forces there until the year 2025.

One of President Obama's top foreign policy advisors is a man named Zbigniew Brzezinski who also served in that same role in the Carter administration.

Brzezinski has a long history of intervention in Afghanistan and began policy arming who Ronald Reagan would later call "freedom fighters".and who the American government would later call Osama bin Laden.

Brzenzinski's efforts under Carter to secretly foment militancy on part of Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and supply them with the millions of dollars of weaponry necessary would only end in horrific blowback decades later. But such transactions would continue to take place through the 1980's in an effort to draw out the Soviet Union's bankrupting occupation.

President Obama announced in January the deployment of an additional 17,000 U.S. forces to Afghanistan. The War in Afghanistan is now in its eighth year. The Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan from 1979-1988.