Bob Krause,Democratic candidate for US Senate today called for President Obama to call an international peace conference to find a permanent peaceful solution to instability in Afghanistan and the surrounding region. "It is obvious from intelligence reports that various international interests are actually feeding the fire in Afghanistan, in part to tie down the United States. Russian arms, Chinese arms and Indian arms do provide some evidence that each of these regional powers is using the war in Afghanistan to achieve strategic advantage. In addition, friction between Afghanistan and Pakistan going back to the colonial division of the territory of the Pashtun tribal nation between Pakistan and Afghanistan is driving and complicating US efforts to stabilize the region." said Krause.
"Unless these regional frictions are identified and negotiated, we will only be spilling blood for a temporary fix that will disappear as a will-o-the-wisp into another round of brutal civil war.
This peace conference is urgent not only for the purpose of saving US, ally and Afghanistani lives, but it is also needed to prevent the US military incursion from destabilizing Pakistan. Pakistan has 180 million people. If we think we have troubles in this region of the world with Afghanistan destabilized, just wait until Pakistan is destabilized," added Krause.
The Bob Krause campaign sponsored a panel of military analysts to respond to President Obama's speech on the war escalation. Besides Krause, participants included Jeffrey Weiss, director of the Catholic Peace Ministry in Des Moines, Richard North, a noted military analyst from Europe, and Gordon Duff, senior editor of VeteransToday.Com.
An audio tape of the Krause discussion panel in response to President Obama's speech on Afghanistan is available. If you want to hear the discussion, you can call 605-475-4848. Use Access Code 975120#. This is a very detailed discussion Afghanistan and why we need an international peace conference there instead of more troops.
Krause, from Fairfield, is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, with a brevet promotion to full colonel. He is past state president of the Reserve Officers Association and also served on the nation board of directors of the ROA. Currently he is chair of the Iowa Democratic Veterans Caucus.
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