[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 141 (Thursday, October 3, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE DON RITTER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDWARD R. ROYCE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 3, 1996

  Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I insert the following for the Record:

    Statement of the Honorable Don Ritter--Former Co-Chairman, U.S. 
 Congressional Task Force on Afghanistan, June 6, 1996, Near East and 
  South Asian Affairs Subcommittee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

       I want to thank you Chairman Brown and the other 
     distinguished Members of this Committee for holding this 
     important and timely hearing on Afghanistan. I would also 
     like to express my appreciation to my former colleagues, 
     Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Congressman Charles Wilson, 
     as well as the other witnesses offering testimony today 
     before this Committee. Congressional leadership on this issue 
     has always played an important and historic role.
       We are gathered here today out of concern for the people of 
     Afghanistan and that war-torn country that has suffered 
     unspeakable brutality and neglect. Clearly, the United 
     States, so active over so many crucial years, needs to place 
     a higher priority now on the agony and devastation of 
     Afghanistan and its people.
       Mr. Chairman, the United States has a moral obligation to 
     the people of Afghanistan because of their pivotal role in 
     defeating the Red Army at a time when Communism was on the 
     march around the globe. This seems like ancient history 
     sometimes but, ultimately, Afghanistan proved to be the 
     Achilles Heel of the Soviet Communism and military expansion. 
     One can make a strong case that the Soviet Empire would not 
     have met its demise, nor would the Berlin Wall have come down 
     and the people of eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. made 
     free, if the people of Afghanistan had not had the courage to 
     fight the Red Army when it invaded. For over a decade, the 
     Afghan people paid a heavy and horrible price fighting the 
     Soviet Union for their beloved country--mass executions, 
     chemical attacks, cities destroyed, villages burned, the 
     countryside mined, children orphaned. Millions of Afghans 
     fled or were murdered by the communists. The point is this 
     Mr. Chairman: Freedom loving people in the United States and 
     around the world thus owe an important debt to the Afghans 
     for helping to win the Cold War and the course of world 
     history.
       The bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Afghanistan that 
     I helped lead with Senator Gordon Humphrey, Congressman 
     Charles Wilson, Congressman Bob Lagomarsino and others 
     pressed for U.S. humanitarian and military support for the 
     Afghan people during some of the darkest and most brutal 
     periods of Soviet military operations in Afghanistan. In 
     recent years, after the Soviet withdrawal and the communist 
     defeat, I have grown increasingly troubled by the tragic fate 
     that has overtaken Afghanistan. The United States must again 
     reassert a leadership role to help the people of Afghanistan.
       The point is this: We fought together with the Afghan 
     people to win the war. In a very real sense they served on 
     the front lines for us. Now is the time to fight together to 
     win the peace. Its the right thing to do. We have the 
     responsibility.
       Although I no longer serve in Congress, I am willing to 
     step forward once again to join you, Mr. Chairman, along with 
     Congressman Wilson, Congressman Rohrabacher and others 
     committed to helping to find solutions to the situation in 
     Afghanistan. I would encourage others to join me in this 
     effort--Americans and Afghans, those in government as well as 
     in the private sector. Now is the hour. Now is the time for 
     the United States to launch a new initiative to help bring 
     peace, stability and prosperity to the war-weary and 
     suffering people of Afghanistan.
       Finally, the United States, as this Committee well knows 
     and will explore today, ignores the situation in Afghanistan 
     at great peril. Afghanistan remains important to the national 
     interest of the United States for geostrategic and national 
     security reasons because of its pivotal role regarding 
     Central Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. If the United 
     States will not take a leadership role in Afghanistan, Iran 
     and other hostile terrorist forces will. In a world that for 
     us grows ever smaller and more integrated all the time, this 
     prospect in South Asia is more threatening to the United 
     States. America must act with resolve and courage to help the 
     people of Afghanistan while there is yet time.

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