War-Weary House Warns Obama Over Afghanistan

War-weary Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Thursday sent the strongest warning yet to President Barack Obama to end the decade-long war in Afghanistan as the chief determines the number of U.S. troops to withdraw this summer.

A measure requiring an accelerated schedule for taking back the 100,000 troops from Afghanistan and an exit strategy for the war won 204 votes in the 435-member House, falling just short of passage but spurred the hopes of its proponents.

In the GOP-led House, 178 Democrats and 26 Republicans supported the measure, while eight Democrats and 207 Republicans rejected it. The measure was offered as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would allow $690 billion in defense spending for the next fiscal year.

"Today’s strong bipartisan vote represents a huge step forward in the effort to bring the war in Afghanistan to a close,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who sponsored the measure, said in a statement.

“I hope the President recognizes that there is a growing consensus in Congress and the country that our policy needs to change. Last year, I offered a similar amendment that got 162 votes in a Democratic House."

While Obama will start pulling out some of the troops in July with all combat forces due out by 2014, McGovern and other proponents fear that the initial reduction will be a mere 5,000 troops.

Proponents of the measure argue that with former al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden dead and the United States having reached its debt ceiling, the country cannot afford spending $10 billion every month on the Afghanistan war.

“Nearly a decade ago we entered Afhganistan to kill al-Qaeda operatives and eradicate their training camps. With Osama bin Laden dead, the training camps destroyed, and fewer than 100 al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan, we’ve achieved our mission critical goals,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

Garamendi argued that the country needs to shift away from fighting an “internal civil war” and start focusing on al-Qaeda wherever it takes roots: Be it in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and even the United States.

A similar amendment by Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah) would have required most U.S. ground troops to pull out from Afghanistan, but it failed on a vote of 123-294.