PRESS
LI ALLIANCE FOR PEACEFUL ALTERNATIVES   
(516)741-4360 – email:longislandpeace@gmail.com – www.longislandpeace.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  CONTACT: Margaret Melkonian (516)640-0980
July 28, 2010

LI REPS VOTE  YES ON $33 BILLION MORE FOR AFGHAN WAR
DESPITE PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR ENDING WAR
AND CREATING JOBS HERE AT HOME

The House voted 308 to 114 for $33 Billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill goes to President Obama to be signed.  Despite strong support on Long Island and in the country for an end to the Afghan war, all five LI congressional representatives voted to continue funding the war.

In order to ensure passage, the HR 4899 bill, cynically, included additional funding to keep teachers, police and firefighters employed, for relief assistance for Haiti, for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange and for PELL grants along with lesser amounts for the Gulf oil cleanup and other needs. That brought the supplemental funding to $59 Billion.

Let’s be clear - a YES VOTE was a vote for continuing the war without an exit plan. Future funding bills should be up and down votes.

Our LI communities are concerned about job creation, about more and more boarded up houses in our neighborhoods and the cuts in youth programs. It is time for our representatives to listen to their constituents and to vote against continued war funding - or risk reelection.

Or Worse. Congress’ blind support year after year of a failed and dangerous policy of war and militarism is leading more and more citizens to withdraw from our democratic process.

The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has surpassed $1 trillion and has claimed the lives of 5,620 US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians.

On Monday, August 2, members of the LI Alliance and other peace groups, including Great Neck SANE/Peace Action, Code Pink LI, Pax Christ LI, will again STOPBY at LI reps local offices to call on our representatives to take action to end the war, to read names of  US soldiers who have died in Afghanistan in July and to discuss recent Wikileaks revelations about the conduct of the war on the ground.   STOPBYS are planned at offices of Reps. Ackerman, Israel and McCarthy.

 

For information: Margaret Melkonian, Director, LI Alliance at 516-640-0980.