Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who previously forced a vote in the House to stop the war in Afghanistan from spilling over the border into Pakistan, today renewed his calls for Congress to explicitly cut off funding in the region after the Associated Press (AP) reported that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) helicopters attacked Pakistani troops at a border crossing. The Pakistani troops, who were in uniforms similar to the local civilian population, are among the same troops being trained by the United States. According to the AP, they were ordered to stop supply trucks attempting to cross the Torkham border post.
“NATO troops have attacked Pakistan, attacked an ally for the simple offense of refusing NATO forces to expand the war into their sovereign nation,” said Kucinich. “Last night, in the middle of the night, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution that included Pakistan counterinsurgency funds. Those funds are for our troops to operate in Pakistan, and to train Pakistan’s military and Pakistan’s Frontier Corps. We are killing the same troops we claim to be helping.
“We cannot afford to continue the status quo in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Our counterinsurgency strategy places our troops and our national security in great peril. The truth is that we cannot afford these wars. We cannot afford an open-ended commitment to wars that have done nothing to further our security or moral standing in the world. The American people cannot afford to have Congress allocate vital resources under the façade of nation-building overseas, especially while people here at home have such urgent unmet economic needs. Congress must take its Congressional responsibility seriously. We have not declared war on Pakistan and we must cut off military funding immediately,” said Kucinich.
