Help Britain Get Out of Afghanistan So We Can Get Out, Too

[G_j]

On September 27, the Labour Party in Britain - which is currently the governing party - is having its annual policy conference. Last weekend, the Guardian reported <1> that members of the Labour Party who oppose the continuing war in Afghanistan are planning to offer a resolution <2> against the war at this conference.

Could you show your support for British efforts to withdraw from Afghanistan by signing our petition to the Labour Party? You can sign the petition here:

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/labour

Currently, Britain has the second largest foreign military force in Afghanistan after the United States. As a result, Britain's participation in the war is a key political justification for the U.S.'s continuing occupation of Afghanistan - the participation of Britain is used in Washington to argue that the war is a "multilateral" rather than unilateral U.S. action. If Britain were to withdraw, the case for staying in Afghanistan would be more difficult to make.

In Europe, the war in Afghanistan is seen as an American policy, and opponents of the war are often unjustly tarred as "anti-American." But recent CNN <3> and McClatchy <4> polls show the majority of Americans are opposed to this war and are opposed to sending more troops, just as the majority of Britons are. <5> We want to show our friends in Britain that Americans support their efforts to withdraw their troops.

Please help end the war in Afghanistan by signing our petition of support to the British Labour Party.

Our petition says:

"As Americans opposed to the war in Afghanistan, we support your efforts to end British involvement in the war."

You can sign the petition here:

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/labour

Thank you for all you do in support of a just foreign policy,

Robert Naiman, Chelsea Mozen, Megan Iorio and Sarah Burns
Just Foreign Policy

Please support our work.
Your financial contribution helps us to continue to create opportunities for Americans to advocate for a just foreign policy.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html

References:

1) Gaby Hinsliff and Mark Townsend, "Gordon Brown faces Labour motion to pull out troops from Afghanistan," Guardian, September 6, 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/06/gordon-brown-afghanistan-pullout-motion

2) Campaign for Labour Party Democracy "Contemporary Issues for Annual Conference: Afghanistan"
http://home.freeuk.com/clpd/contemp_issues.htm#Afghanistan

3) Paul Steinhauser, "CNN Poll: Afghanistan War opposition at all-time high," September 1, 2009
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/01/cnn-poll-afghanistan-war-opposition-at-all-time-high

4) Steven Thomma, "Poll: Most Americans oppose more troops for Afghanistan," McClatchy Newspapers, September 1, 2009
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/74730.html

5) Andrew Porter, "Two thirds want British troops home from Afghanistan", August 29, 2009, Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6106201/Two-thirds-want-British-troops-home-from-Afghanistan.html

[G_j]

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2. done - knr #4 nt