In pushing for more time for the “surge” to “work,” David Petraeus is doing exactly what he promised he would *not* do in November 2009: ask for more time for the “surge” to “work.” If Mr. Petraeus’ clear statement in November 2009 can not now be trusted, why should Americans trust anything else he has to say about the drawdown?

The majority of Americans want the Obama Administration to establish a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, CBS News reports. But if General Petraeus has his way, the State Department will designate part of the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist organization.That would undermine peace moves in Afghanistan, the New York Times reports – peace moves that the Administration told Newsweek that it supports. Petraeus’ move would undermine not only a timetable for withdrawal, but the “serious drawdown” in July 2011 that Vice President Biden told Newsweek we can “bet on” and Speaker Pelosi told the Huffington Post she expects.

Peace activists sent a letter of protest to the Democratic National Committee in response to Brad Woodhouse’s attack on Michael Steele over Steele’s criticism of the Afghanistan war. A key effect of Woodhouse’s attack is the chilling of Republican dissent on the Afghanistan war – Republican dissent that war critics need in order to end it. The letter attempts to counteract that effect and to pressure the DNC to not engage in this sort of attack on war critics in the future.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told the Huffington Post she expects a “serious drawdown” of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011. The House Rules Committee has now approved an amendment for consideration on the war supplemental that will allow Speaker Pelosi to “put her money where her mouth is.”

There is no “emergency” requiring the House to throw another $33 billion into our increasingly bloody and pointless occupation of Afghanistan before we all go off to celebrate the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from foreign occupation.

When President Obama visited Afghanistan, he assured U.S. troops that “America does not quit once it starts on something.” But according to the New York Times, America is throwing in the towel on AIDS in Africa. This despite the fact that the cost of combating AIDS is 1/20th the cost of continuing the war.

When Afghan President Karzai meets President Obama, Afghan government officials have said their top priority is to get Obama to agree the U.S. will fully back efforts of the Afghan government to reconcile with senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban insurgency in order to end the war. Saying yes to the Afghan government’s request for US support for peace talks would seem like a no-brainer.

If McGovern’s Afghanistan withdrawal bill shortens the war in Afghanistan by a year, that would pay for the two-year cost of the Local Jobs for America Act.

Rep. Michael Honda, a leader on Afghanistan among House Democrats, has backed the Feingold-McGovern bill for a timetable for U.S. military withdrawal. This could help set in motion a chain of events to end the war.

Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold, Representative Jim McGovern, and Representative Walter Jones announced the introduction of legislation that – if it attracts enough support – could end the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan, and bring the troops home.