The five hundred million dollars in aid the US pledged to Pakistan this week is not the only backing the United States is providing the country considered an ally against terrorist elements. According to a statement by Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the White House has increased its military commitment to Pakistan without Congressional oversight or approval. The White House’s abuse of its authority, Kucinich says in his statement, “must stop.” On Thursday evening, he and fellow House member Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced a privileged resolution to pull US forces from the country. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi gives the nod, the Kucinich-Paul resolution will jump the line of items before the House next week, right before Congress breaks for its August recess.
Although American military support in Pakistan is not new, nor unreported, Kucinich’s Friday statement bristles on two points – Kucinich claims that he and his peers learned about the troop upgrade via an article in The Wall Street Journal, and that the deployment is illegal according to the 1973 War Powers Resolution. The resolution Kucinich cites gives the Oval Office the right to send members of the military into “hostilities or imminent hostilities,” but it is a power that comes with requirements. Among them: that the president consults Congress about such deployments “in every possible instance.”
Kucinich also opposes the deployment on strategic grounds. “This increasing US military activity has little to do with protecting the United States and in fact is creating more enemies than it is defeating,” he says, noting that the uptick comes “at a time when there are, according to the CIA, very few al-Qaeda members in that country.”
Kucinich’s objection to US troops in Pakistan is not without precedent, nor is his use of the privilege resolution. In December, he promised to introduce bills to remove forces from both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Kucinich introduced privilege resolutions to impeach then-President George W. Bush in 2008, and one in 2007 to impeach Vice President Cheney.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.