Washington-The US House of Representatives has defeated a resolution seeking withdrawal from Pakistan of American troops, who are operating "in secret" in that country without Congressional approval.
Introduced by Democrat Dennis Kucinich and Republican Ron Paul, the Resolution (No 301) was defeated by 38 to 372 votes late last night.
"We have known that US forces have been operating in secret inside the territories of Pakistan without Congressional approval," Kucinich said while introducing the resolution.
The Congressman said they recently learnt from an article in 'Wall Street Journal' that the US is engaged in a covert strategy to increase its troops' role there incrementally, with the goal of convincing Pakistan to be more accepting of its presence.
"This is a violation of the 1973 War Powers Resolution and it is our Constitutional responsibility as members of Congress to act," said Kucinich.
The US military has significantly increased its activities in Pakistan both in troop presence and Predator attacks at a time when there are, according to the CIA, very few al-Qaeda members in that country, Congressman Paul said.
This increasing US military activity in Pakistan has little to do with protecting the United States and in fact is creating more enemies than it is defeating, he said.
"The administration, like its predecessor, is misusing language in the original post-9/11 resolution to prosecute a wider regional war and Congress is sitting quietly on the sidelines. This must stop," said Paul.
The introduction of House Resolution in this regard follows a promise last December to introduce bills to remove the US forces from both Afghanistan and Pakistan. PTI
