A Salute to Congressman Alan Grayson

Though there are many heroes on the battlefield, there are few in D.C, where flocks of chicken-hawks keep the war going. Every Friday, OutofAfghanistan will recognize a policymaker who is working hard to hasten the end of the occupation.

This week, we salute Florida Congressman Alan Grayson. Grayson is a progressive Democrat in a moderate district, and Republicans have made him their number 1 target in the 2010 congressional elections. I included this picture because before Grayson joined Congress he worked as an attorney exposing contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, an issue that should be dear to everyone's heart, regardless of ideology. His campaign website has some of the better ads I've ever seen, addressing a topic that often goes unmentioned.

Yesterday, Grayson took the time to live-blog on Crooks and Liars. He impressed me with the moral certainty with which he believes we must withdraw. Maybe he hasn't been in Washington long enough, because he abhors b.s phrases like 'containment': Containing what? "Containment" is an empty metaphor, like "the domino theory."

Grayson tells it how it is, saying that for too many in Washington, the Afghanistan "strategy" is driven by war profiteering: Whose strategy? KBR's strategy? KBR's strategy is to perpetuate the war, and KBR's profit stream.

Finally, on multiple occasions Grayson raises an almost entirely unmentioned cost of the war: The appropriated cost is around $10 billion a month, which is enough to pay for the entire health care plan by itself. But that doesn't include the future health care costs for injured American soldiers, which is staggering...We're talking about a quarter of a million Americans who will need care for the rest of their lives (referring to both wars).

We thank Alan Grayson for his work to help end the war.