Democrats Differ With President Obama On Funding For Afghanistan war
The United States House of Representatives yesterday approved a bill providing $59 billion in additional funding for the country’s ongoing war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The House vote was important as it showed that president Obama was losing popularity among the members of his own Democratic Party as 102 Democrats voted against the funding. Notably only 33 Democrats had voted against a similar funding bill in June 2009.
Prominent liberals such as Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and many members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois and Maxine Waters of California also voted against the bill.
Rep. Louise Slaughter also voted against the bill, which was expected as the New York Democrat had strongly criticized Obama when he had announced his intention to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in December last year.
"The president failed to set out concrete goals and a firm exit strategy. I cannot support this escalation without those guarantees. I am extremely concerned that Afghanistan will rapidly become one more military quagmire that sacrifices American lives and drains our funds," Slaughter said last year.
The bill will now be sent to Obama to be signed into law. The growing opposition of the Democrats over the bill followed closely from the release of the secret Afghan war documents by WikiLeaks on Sunday. Before the House started the vote on bill, Obama said, “I urge the House leaders to pass the necessary funding to support our efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I know much has been written about this in recent days as a result of the substantial leak of documents from Afghanistan covering a period from 2004 to 2009”.
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