Nancy Pelosi likes to say she "hates" the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and wants to bring our troops home. So why is she "fiercely lobbying" progressive Democrats to keep our troops in Iraq and expand the self-defeating Afghanistan war into Pakistan? Politico reports,

The single-largest piece of the bill is $77.16 billion for the Defense Department, largely to maintain operations in Iraq and support Obama’s increased commitment to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Included are funds for a greatly expanded U.S. role in training and equipping Pakistani troops, who will be asked to carry out more counterinsurgency operations against Taliban forces operating in their country and along the border with Afghanistan. This aid will move first through Defense and later through the State Department in two installments, totaling as much as  $1.1 billion by Oct. 1.

Here's how Pelosi is muscling progressives, according to CQ:

the Speaker approached Rep. Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio progressive who sits on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and asked Kaptur to reconsider her “no” vote.

Rather than making a case based on the policy, Kaptur said, the Speaker asserted that Obama and congressional Democrats needed to clear the decks of “the last old business” left over from the Bush administration.

Kaptur was unmoved.

“I don’t agree with her analysis that we’re cleaning up for Bush,” said Kaptur, who worries that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are too costly and that the administration lacks a plan for success in Afghanistan. “This is Obama’s first chance. This is his first wave.”

Does Pelosi really believe $77B more to fund the wars will "clear the decks"? Obviously those funds won't end the wars or bring our troops home, they will instead expand the wars and increase the baseline war funding for future budgets.