[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 13, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H3999-H4000]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       SNATCHING DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF VICTORY IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, for approximately 5 years I warned this 
body about the threat that the Taliban regime posed to the United 
States and the free world and the threat posed by the al Qaeda 
terrorist network, which was then operating out of Afghanistan. For 
years I was a voice in the wilderness; and later it was found, of 
course, that those warnings should have been heeded.
  Tonight, I rise to alert my colleagues that our State Department may 
well be in the process of snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory 
in Afghanistan.
  First and foremost, let us note that we, the American people, have 
not done right by the people of Afghanistan. These poor people, in 
their war-torn land, they again have helped us out, but again we have 
not stepped forward with the type of commitment to rebuild their 
country and to help them rebuild what would have been warranted by the 
sacrifices they have made.
  Their bravery and their sacrifice helped defeat, not just helped 
defeat, it dramatically and specifically defeated the Soviet Army that 
was occupying their country, and that defeat of the Soviet Army was a 
major factor in the end of the Cold War. After the Cold War and after 
the Soviet Army left, we walked a way to leave them amidst land mines 
and rubble.
  However, after we were attacked 10 years later by the Taliban and the 
al Qaeda, the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, which are the northern 
tribes, you might say, of Afghanistan, rallied to our side and were 
instrumental in eliminating the Taliban regime and defeating al Qaeda. 
Without their support, we would have lost many hundreds, if not 
thousands, of troops in Afghanistan. These brave people, however, after 
they helped us defeat the Soviet Union, then they helped us defeat the 
Taliban, these brave people are still sleeping in the rubble.
  We have not built, as Newt Gingrich noted recently, one new mile of 
road in Afghanistan. Three weeks ago, I was in Afghanistan and drove 
across the country on the same roads, the hole-pocked roads and 
horrible conditions that have existed there for years. Not one mile of 
new road, not one new energy project has been built, although most all 
Afghans live in the darkness of a nonelectric world.
  We need to offer them a way out of their despair. We need to let them 
know that America's word counts and that they can count on us because 
they have helped us. We need to repay our debt to the people of 
Afghanistan. We need to offer them a way to lay down their rifles and 
pick up shovels and start rebuilding their country.
  Instead, we have not done what is right by the people of Afghanistan, 
and our State Department seems to be not competent to get that job 
done, because for a year and a half the job has not been proceeding as 
it should.

[[Page H4000]]

  Instead, our State Department is, what? Our State Department is 
pushing that our allies in the war against the Taliban, the Northern 
Alliance, should, without reservation, disarm and dismantle their 
military forces; this at a time when those people who sided with the 
Taliban could well take over the central government and as the Taliban 
are still skirmishing throughout the country periodically. Yet our 
State Department wants our allies to disarm.
  By the way, our allies, and I visited them 1 month ago, want one 
thing and one thing only: the Northern Alliance, those who fought with 
us against the Taliban, are asking only that they have the right to 
elect their local leaders, their local mayors and provision leaders. 
That is what they are asking for. Is that not understandable? Is this 
not what America is all about?
  It is funny that our State Department, however, is pushing a system 
that is totally contrary to the American experience. They, instead, are 
insisting that Afghanistan have, get this, a French-like centralized 
system of government, in which the provision leaders and the local 
leaders would be appointed. The local police chief is appointed by the 
centralized government in Kabul, the capital city. The school masters 
are appointed by the centralized government in Kabul.
  This is not freedom. This is not what America is all about. Yet our 
State Department pushes in exactly the wrong direction. We need to 
oversee what the State Department is doing in Afghanistan before it 
collapses and before the heroin production in that country destroys any 
hope for those people to have a decent life in the future.

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