Lynn C. Woolsey: “Last week the Pentagon released its 6- month status update on the war in Afghanistan. It is a sobering report indeed…”

“Last week the Pentagon released its 6- month status update on the war in Afghanistan. It is a sobering report indeed, one that should make all of us question the very legitimacy of this mission. There has been a huge uptick in violence, including a 240 percent increase in roadside bomb attacks. The Karzai government's support has sunk to embarrassing lows as more than 80 percent of Afghan citizens say government corruption has an impact on their lives and barely one in four Afghans rate U.S. and NATO forces as ``good'' or ``very good.'' This isn't Lynn Woolsey or the Congressional Progressive Caucus talking at this moment, this is a report from the very people responsible for the strategy. And yet at the same time contrary to all apparent evidence, we continue to get the same spin and happy talk from the Pentagon. After the report was delivered to Congress last week, one senior defense official said: ``We have the beginning of the potential for real change.'' Madam Speaker, it is long past the moment when we should be talking about the ``beginning of the potential for real change.'' I think 8rac{1}{2} years is plenty of time for real change and not just the beginning of its potential. We have been patient. We have seen more than a thousand of our fellow Americans killed. We have seen about $270 billion in taxpayer money fly out of the Treasury.…”