Manchin, other senators call for end to Afghanistan war | Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and 23 other senators called on President Obama on Wednesday to bring American combat forces home from Afghanistan.
With the Senate debating funding for highway construction and other domestic transportation needs, the senators wrote to Obama, "We simply cannot afford more years of elevated troop levels in Afghanistan. We are spending roughly $10 billion in Afghanistan each month at a time when we're making tough sacrifices at home.
"Your recent budget calls for $88 billion more for the war in Afghanistan in 2013. If this money is appropriated, we will have spent a total of $650 billion in Afghanistan. A majority of Americans worry that the costs of the war in Afghanistan will make it more difficult for the government to address the problems facing the United States at home."
The letter pointed the total amount the U.S. has spent in Iraq and Afghanistan would rebuild the American interstate highway system five times over.
Manchin has repeatedly asked for a quick end to the nation-building mission in Afghanistan.
"We have no business carrying out a mission of nation building in Afghanistan when we are facing such urgent challenges here at home," Manchin stated in a press release on Wednesday.
Most of the senators who signed the letter were Democrats. The two Republicans were Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah.
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