Brown Bag Lunch Vigil: Stop the $33 billion Afghanistan Supplemental!

Additional Locations:
Lowell • Office of Rep. Niki Tsongas • 11 Kearney Square 
Worcester • Public Library, Banx Room • 3 Salem Square (12:30pm)
Hyannis • Office of Rep. Bill Delahunt • 146 Main Street (Friday at 3-4pm)

Register to attend!

Brown Bag Vigil, Boston, Feb 18 2010

This month, Congress will decide whether to fund continued escalation of the war, even as the Obama administration faces a turning point in Afghanistan strategy.

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan will be in Washington May 10-13 to seek U.S. permission to negotiate with the Taliban and other armed insurgents. But the U.S. plans instead to fight the insurgents in Kandahar this summer, hoping to put itself in a stronger negotiating position. With scares like the attempted Times Square car bomb, the administration’s team may also reason that its political prospects in the fall elections will be better if Obama has shown himself to be a strong and successful military leader.

The “make-or-break offensive of the war” is scheduled for June in Kandahar, a city of 1 million and the spiritual home of the Taliban. February’s Marjah offensive left locals feeling more negative about NATO forces than before the operation. The potential bloodbath caused by an attack of 23,000 troops is enormous. Tribal leaders and the public in Kandahar are strongly opposed to the forthcoming attack.

Congress has been asked to approve by the end of May a $33 billion supplemental request to pay for the 30,000 additional troops President Obama ordered to Afghanistan in December and who are now starting to arrive for the offensive. Congress must take a stand and refuse to fund the war.

At our May Brown Bag Lunch Vigil (BBLV) we will ask passersby to call Sen. Kerry and Brown and tell them to vote NO on the supplemental appropriation.   We will also drop into their offices before we leave to bring our message in person..

Sponsored by UJP Afghanistan Task Force, Progressive Democrats of America, and Veterans for Peace/Smedley Butler Brigade.    Email us at ujpcoalition@gmail.com.

Register to attend!