Next week, Congress will vote on President Obama's plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan. These wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been going on almost a decade. There are first and second graders in this country who have never known an America at peace. To them, America is always at war.



President Obama inspired us in his run for President with his message of peace. He told Iowans about his courageous stance against the war in Iraq, "I opposed this war from the beginning. I opposed the war in 2002. I opposed the war in 2003. I opposed it in 2004 and 2005 and 2006."



This is why Obama was elected: to bring peace and prosperity to our country.



Obama told the people in Illinois who elected him to the Senate, that "the consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not-- we will not-- travel down that hellish path blindly."



He told us that we should "not stay the course or take the conventional path because the other course is unknown." These are the words of a man of peace, and I believe that we can remind the President that he can be that man of peace...

We do not want to join a battle to occupy a foreign country indefinitely, no matter how much the military-industrial establishment may press for it. General Petraeus already said in May that Al Qaeda doesn't even operate in Afghanistan any more, and President Karzai agreed.



But we do want to join the battles that President Obama told us about before he became President, the battles, he said, "against ignorance and intolerance, corruption and greed, poverty and despair." Those are the battles that, "we willingly join."

Michael Capuano [D-MA]

Yvette Clarke [D-NY]

Emanuel Cleaver [D-MO]

Steve Cohen [D-TN]

John Conyers [D-MI]

Donna Edwards [D-MD]

Keith Ellison [D-MN]

Bob Filner [D-CA]

Alan Grayson [D-FL]

Raul Grijalva [D-AZ]

Maurice Hinchey [D-NY]

Michael Honda [D-CA]

Sheila Jackson-Lee [D-TX]

Dennis Kucinich [D-OH]

John Lewis [D-GA]

James McDermott [D-WA]

James McGovern [D-MA]

Jerrold Nadler [D-NY]

Fortney Stark [D-CA]

Edolphus Towns [D-NY]

Nydia Velázquez [D-NY]

Maxine Waters [D-CA]

Diane Watson [D-CA]

Lynn Woolsey [D-CA]

Yesterday I was reminded why Blue America donors chose Alan Grayson (D-FL) to be our PAC's first endorsee for 2010 . Grayson was onwith Chris Matthews; take a look:Before being elected to Congress last year, attorney Grayson took on -- and beat -- war profiteers and well-connected insiders defrauding the taxpayers. When you see him examining banksters and CEOs at the House Financial Services Committee, you watch them squirm as the deference and obsequiousness they expect from their future employees, turns into brutal cross examination from a skillful, fearless and courageous congressman who doesn't believe "law and order" is only for poor people.Recently Grayson thwarted the bipartisan Inside the Beltway Establishment by joining with Republican Ron Paul for abipartisan effort to force through an audit of the Fed. Thanks to Grayson's persistence there are over 300 co-sponsors of the legislation. Earlier, in June, he was instrumental in rounding up Democrats to vote against the president's war supplemental, and judging by the letter we got from him today, that's what he's working on again:At the very end of his letter, he addresses President Obama directly: "Mr, President," he writes, "be the President that we voted for, the President that you promised to be. We agree with you that we should not "travel down this hellish path blindly." It is time to come home. I remember when Barbara Lee told me a couple months ago that Grayson came up to her the first day she drafted her resolution, HR 3699 , that would prohibit funding any increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan, and asked to be a cosponsor. Now there are two dozen:These are all courageous men and women... but notice that only one-- Alan Grayson-- is in a Republican-leaning district. He's the only co-sponsor who is being targeted by the GOP. (On the other hand, conservative Democrats have singled out Donna Edwards, Diane Watson and Steve Cohen for primary challenges next year, so going up against the White House takes a lot of guts on their parts as well.)Today, though, I want to ask you to consider going to the Blue America 2010 page and showing Grayson that his efforts and his moxie are appreciated. Yours are too!

Labels: Afghanistan, Alan Grayson