Donna Edwards: “Our military risk their lives and our Nation spends resources in a country that has so little hope of future success…”

“Our military risk their lives and our Nation spends resources in a country that has so little hope of future success, that international terrorism actually flourishes in so many countries. Estimates are that this kind of terrorism actually flourishes in about 70 countries. And yet we are so heavily invested in Afghanistan that it leaves us little time, opportunity, or resources to really fight the battle where that needs to happen. By focusing our military and our energy and our treasury on Afghanistan, we are really operating under the inaccurate Bush era philosophy that the threat we face is both well-organized, centralized, and advanced. We know that violent fundamentalism often operates with little centralization and little organization. It is part of the reason that it can be so successful. This war is a constant reminder that our response to the quickly evolving threat of international terrorism is static, and we must end this war and look for ways to more effectively disrupt violent plots to protect our citizens, our national security, our safety and security, and to build nations in a way that they respect processes and people.”