[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 18 (Wednesday, February 12, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H518-H519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
                         PEACE FOR AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Snowbarger). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher] is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, as I ran back and forth today trying to 
cast my votes on this very important issue of term limits, I was 
visited by four individuals who have trekked halfway around the world 
in order to visit this capital of the United States of America in an 
attempt to bring peace to their own country. Those individuals 
represent one of the factions that continue to struggle in Afghanistan. 
Those individuals 10 years ago were engaged in a struggle to defeat the 
most powerful enemy and the most powerful dictatorship in the world, 
the Soviet Union. The people of Afghanistan rose up against their 
invaders and it was their courage and their determination that helped 
bring an end to the cold war. Yes, it was the little Mujahedin 110-
pound man with a turban on his head and a beard who jumped from behind 
a rock and faced a Soviet tank and said: You shall not impose your will 
on Afghanistan. You will not destroy our faith in God. You will stop 
here. You will not control my country. I will die before you succeed.
  It was that bravery and that courage of that perhaps uneducated man 
from Afghanistan who was willing to give everything that eventually 
brought the expansion of the Soviet empire to an end and reversed the 
course of the cold war. The United States has a lot to be grateful and 
all the people of the free world have a lot to be grateful for to the 
people of Afghanistan. Yet the struggle goes on. For the last 3 hours, 
I have been speaking with these gentlemen who have trekked halfway 
around the world in order to find peace for their country, in order to 
find a peace for Afghanistan. The American people owe a great debt of 
gratitude to Afghanistan. We would still be in a cold war today. There 
would still be nuclear missiles aimed at the United States of America 
by a belligerent power from the Soviet Union had not the people of 
Afghanistan risked everything in order to defeat the Soviet empire and 
to defeat the Communist thrust into their country. For this, the entire 
world and

[[Page H519]]

the people of the United States owe the people of Afghanistan a great 
debt. Yet right after the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States ran 
at a quick pace away from Afghanistan and never looked back. And every 
day, even to this day, young people in Afghanistan, children, are blown 
apart by land mines, some of which were provided by the United States 
of America. We have not done our best to try to bring peace to a 
country and to a people to whom we owe so much. It is my hope that, in 
Afghanistan, the leaders of the Taliban movement who now control much 
of that country and the leaders of other factions who control the 
northernmost regions of that country can come to an understanding that 
will bring peace and will bring free elections to that strife-torn 
country and will provide for the people of that country, those brave 
people of Afghanistan, who stood against Soviet tyranny and Soviet 
armor, will bring them at last to a time when they can rebuild their 
water ducts, they can rebuild their villages and mosques, they can 
rebuild their schools and they can begin again to have a country 
devoted to Islam, their religion, devoted to their families and to 
their honor. The United States owes it to the people of Afghanistan to 
do what we can to help bring peace to that country.
  Tonight, as I say, I have spoken to these leaders who have trekked 
halfway around the world trying to seek help from the United States in 
bringing peace to their country. I personally believe that the King of 
Afghanistan represents an option that could unify all of the people of 
Afghanistan because they know that he will soon die, he is over 80 
years old, and will pass away and thus is not a threat in the long run 
to any one faction. The King of Afghanistan would like to bring 
democracy to his country. What we have learned, if we have learned 
anything in these last 50 years, is that free elections bring peace. It 
is democracy that will bring peace to the world. When Ronald Reagan 
confronted the Soviet empire, he stressed our belief in freedom and the 
support for those who struggle for freedom around the world, and that 
is what changed the world and has made this a more peaceful world. Let 
us hope that in the years ahead, there will be a more peaceful 
Afghanistan and the people there can live in dignity and honor and 
prosperity that they have earned with their blood and their honor.

                          ____________________