[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H699-H705]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CODEL TO PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Conaway). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have the opportunity this 
evening to address you on a subject that is both a meaningful memory 
for me, as the elected representative of the people of eastern 
Indiana's Sixth Congressional District, but also, as I believe we will 
hear not only from my recollection but

[[Page H700]]

from colleagues who will join us, and a very rare opportunity to have a 
contemporary conversation about the critical importance and the 
extraordinary success of the United States of America in Afghanistan.
  I had the privilege, as a Member of the House Committee on 
International Relations, to lead a congressional delegation both to 
Pakistan and Afghanistan this past December. Between the dates of 7 
December and 14 December, I had the opportunity of traveling through 
Pakistan. We landed in Islamabad. We drove by ground transportation to 
the border of the tribal areas, the city of Peshawar, but also the 
areas both north and south, Wazirastan, where many may recognize the 
areas most often associated with theories about the hiding place of one 
Osama bin Laden.
  While I and the Members of our delegation were in the city of 
Peshawar, we actually sat down for a meal with tribal leaders from that 
central area of south Wazirastan, which is in effect in the western 
area of Pakistan, and it probably is analogous to the Wild West in 
American history and folklore. As we met with the Prime Minister of 
Pakistan and the Governor of the Peshawar Province, they referred to 
this area of Pakistan as the ungoverned areas of their country.
  So they really are dominated, Mr. Speaker, by tribal leaders who are, 
in effect, military and familial leaders of communities ranging from 
20,000 to 100,000 persons that dot the mountainous landscape of western 
Pakistan.
  Now, while we stopped in Pakistan and evaluated the progress of the 
war on terror in that country, the primary purpose for our trip was to 
visit Afghanistan, where Operation Enduring Freedom has been an 
extraordinary success since the months immediately following the 
devastating attack on our country on September 11, 2001. It was my 
happy privilege to lead what came to be known as CODEL Pence, but the 
happier part of that was to be joined by colleagues and senior staff 
personnel of the House Committee on International Relations, who made 
this trip that much more meaningful and informative for the four 
policymakers that were alongside for the journey.
  My colleagues, some of whom will join me here tonight to share their 
reflections on Afghanistan and the experience that they had, both in 
Kabul as well as at provisional reconstruction sites around the 
country, but my colleagues who joined me included the gentleman from 
Arizona (Mr. Flake), the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), and my 
good friend and colleague, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola).
  There were also noteworthy senior staff personnel from the House 
Committee on International Relations who joined us, as well as members 
of the media, all of whom, I might add, demonstrated an extraordinary 
degree of compassion toward the soldiers that we met and an 
extraordinary degree of compassion toward the regular Afghani adults 
and children that we encountered.
  And I might also add that while at no time was our delegation in any 
physical peril, I do want to commend all those who traveled with us for 
the willingness to go into a combat environment and to carry the 
encouragement of the people that we serve to these soldiers in what was 
the holiday season, when they found themselves so far away from home.
  From that dinner in Peshawar with the tribal leaders, we embarked by 
a C-130 and traveled for our first day into Afghanistan. We arrived in 
Kabul, Afghanistan, in the belly of a C-130 cargo plane, and we made 
our way through Kabul. By way of my first recollection, it was an 
extraordinarily war-torn city.
  Our victory in Operation Enduring Freedom was so overwhelming and so 
quick against the Taliban and the al Qaeda that they harbored that I do 
not know that I did not really expect to see a metropolitan capital 
relatively unmolested by war. But that is only because I was not 
thinking. I was not thinking that it was not the military engagement of 
the United States of America in Kabul that has wreaked havoc on that, 
the largest city in Afghanistan. Rather it was years and decades of 
warfare in that country.
  More on that later. More on how that has affected the attitudes of 
the Afghans both toward the American military commitment and presence 
in the region and how it bears on our relationship going forward.
  But this city had been torn asunder by the military barbarism of the 
Taliban and, of course, by a decades-long struggle with the former 
Soviet Union that used barbaric military force again and again and 
again to attempt to defeat and subjugate the Afghan people and the 
Afghan military, ultimately to their defeat and ultimately to their 
national demise.
  During our trip, we had a number of great privileges. We met while we 
were in Kabul with President Karzai. We had the privilege, Mr. Speaker, 
of being the very first congressional delegation to meet with President 
Hamid Karzai after his inauguration as the first elected President of 
Afghanistan. It was an extraordinary privilege for us to be there on 
December 13, 2004, sitting in the presidential palace and sitting in 
the office with President Karzai.
  By way of reporting to this Chamber a few personal reflections on 
Hamid Karzai, he is a man who I truly believe is the George Washington 
of this generation of the Afghan people. He is, as General Washington, 
whose portrait hangs in this very Chamber, he is in every sense the 
indispensable man of the transition from the brutalities of Soviet 
Communism to the brutalities of Taliban extremism to the free era of an 
Islamic democratic republic in Afghanistan.
  I started to get a sense, as we sat in his office in the palace, 
about why this man has been so successful. He is, first and foremost, a 
man whose personal biography is deeply compelling. Hamid Karzai comes 
from the region of Afghanistan down along the border. We were headed to 
his hometown, which if memory serves, is Kandahar.
  His father had been, in effect, a tribal leader in Kandahar during 
the rise of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan; and as history records, 
Hamid Karzai's father had been initially very supportive of the 
Taliban, but very soon saw their twist into totalitarianism and 
brutality, and Hamid Karzai's father spoke out against the Taliban. And 
as often happens in brutal dictatorships, Hamid Karzai's father was 
assassinated, at which point he was spirited across the border into 
Pakistan. And during much of the reign of the Taliban, he essentially 
hid out in parts of Pakistan, which of course is very familiar to Hamid 
Karzai because he had been educated in the country of Pakistan. And to 
this day he bears both the Pakistani's facile ability with the English 
language as well as a deep understanding of history and academic 
thought.
  It is that Hamid Karzai who, first with his biography was from a 
family that had suffered under the Taliban, that then he is able to 
come back and be the first elected president.

                              {time}  1800

  But I think also, and maybe my colleague from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) 
can reflect on our meeting with Hamid Karzai as well, I found him to be 
an extraordinarily compelling personality as well. The one message, and 
I will yield to my colleague for reflections on that meeting and maybe 
invite my colleague, Mr. Speaker, to a bit of a give-and-take as we 
tell the story of our journey through Afghanistan. I found him to be an 
individual who was deeply humble, who had a profound understanding of 
history, particularly the history of democracy, and who said to us 
again and again, I will not steal the gentleman from Indiana's thunder 
because he really asked a profound question of Hamid Karzai that I hope 
he recites and refers to, but I had a sense again and again that 
President Karzai understood that we were probably hearing back home 
that his people may not want the United States to stay around in 
Afghanistan. He looked at us again and again, Mr. Speaker, and said, 
When you go home, tell the people that you serve that we will never in 
Afghanistan fail to be grateful for what you have done and that we love 
the American soldier, we are grateful for their sacrifices and we love 
the American people.
  To hear that from the elected President of a country that within a 
matter of years ago was not only one of the great enemies of our 
country in the world but harbored the al Qaeda, it was

[[Page H701]]

just an extraordinary miracle of history and a great testament to this 
President's leadership.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, and I hope he will stick around for much of 
our conversation as we tell the story of journeying through this area, 
is the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) who is beginning his second 
term in Congress, a member of the Committee on Ways and Means. We are 
proud of his leadership in Indiana. I was especially grateful that his 
family was willing to spare him to travel through a pretty difficult 
part of the world to gain a greater understanding as a policy leader. I 
yield to the gentleman for any reflections on our trip, but most 
especially would press him for an anecdote about our meeting with 
President Karzai.
  Mr. CHOCOLA. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want to thank my 
colleague from Indiana for his leadership in putting this trip 
together. It was an extraordinary trip full of extraordinary lessons. I 
only wish that all of the American people could have joined us on that 
trip and learned what we learned and saw what we saw, to see really the 
birth of democracy in a country, being the first delegation to meet 
with President Karzai after his inauguration in free elections, that 
went off very successfully. The terrorists were unable to stand in the 
way of people pursuing freedom. It is a wonderful thing to see.
  I do recall our meeting with President Karzai and I think he is an 
extraordinary individual, the right man at the right time, and a great 
partner for the United States. I do not know if I asked him any 
profound questions; but one of the questions I asked him was, What 
would you say to the American people or what would you say if you could 
go to a town hall meeting in the Second District of Indiana? I invited 
him to come, as you may recall. He was a little busy and could not join 
us. But what he said, I do think, was interesting. You would expect him 
to say thank you. You would expect him to thank the American people for 
our support for democracy in Afghanistan and giving really the people 
of Afghanistan the opportunity to rebuild their country and their 
lives. But, instead, he said congratulations to the American people. He 
said, I could say thank you, but I would rather say congratulations, 
because what we have achieved together is an extraordinary thing.
  It is extraordinary to think that just a couple of years ago that 
Afghanistan was under Taliban rule, was harboring the terrorists that 
attacked us on September 11, and today we could sit in his office and 
after having driven through the streets of Kabul and seen economic 
freedom flourishing, entrepreneurship in the streets, in partnership 
with Afghans and Americans working side by side, he said, it is an 
extraordinary thing that we have accomplished and an extraordinary 
thing that we will continue to accomplish together. So congratulations 
to the American people in having such a wonderful partnership with the 
Afghans.
  I also remember what he said: I would also point out that the 
strength of Afghanistan is not our buildings, it is not our economy, it 
is not the Afghan national army, it is the people of Afghanistan. That 
is the greatest strength that will continue to build hope and 
opportunity in this country.
  I think he sounded a little bit like our Founding Fathers and, in 
fact, he sounded a little bit like Ronald Reagan whom I consider one of 
the best Presidents in our Nation's history when he said, I think his 
exact words were, ``The government that governs the least governs the 
best.'' I think we have heard that before somewhere.
  But he understands that it is the government that creates an 
environment for success, that the Afghan government is not going to 
create success for the Afghan people, but they are fully capable of 
doing that on their own; and if the Afghan government can help create 
an environment where people can achieve their own success, really enjoy 
the fruits of their own success and encourage them to share that with 
others and grow their economy and help their neighbor, that Afghanistan 
is well on its way to a free and democratic and successful country.
  I would love to stay here with my colleague and discuss other great 
opportunities and lessons we had. Again, thank you for your leadership 
and thank you for your creativity in helping to share that story with 
some people here in the United States by having some media with us that 
did tell the story. I just wish we could have the whole country hear 
the story loud and clear, because it is a true success story.
  Mr. PENCE. I am grateful for the gentleman's remarks, Mr. Speaker.
  This is an area, and I hope anyone that might be looking in to this 
august Chamber tonight might hear what my colleague from Indiana just 
said about the gratitude that came out of President Hamid Karzai. I had 
literally forgotten until you recited the story that that is precisely 
how he answered the gentleman's question, was to say our success is the 
success of the American people.
  It has been an incredible success. Afghanistan, as the station chief 
where we overnighted at the American embassy in Kabul told us, and I 
will never forget it as we met for a briefing there on the embassy 
compound. He said, Afghanistan is a place where American power and 
American generosity are working. Let me say it again for the benefit of 
any here: Afghanistan is a place where American power and American 
generosity are working.
  We have our challenges in Iraq and with this strong Commander in 
Chief that we have, we will see our way through this and we will see 
those good people with their ink-stained fingers through to the freedom 
they so richly deserve. But Afghanistan is a place we do not read about 
as much in the news. I think that animated my colleague from Indiana 
and my desire to go there and tell the story of the success that we had 
seen.
  One of the things that we saw there was to travel in Kabul to the 
northern outskirts of the city to what has come to be known as Camp 
Phoenix, a large military installation and principally where, as near 
as this non-veteran could appreciate, where a great deal of the 
supplies are managed on a regular basis for Operation Enduring Freedom. 
And also, I might add, it is also a place where, if we can brag for 
just a moment and go to a different poster, 15 percent of the Army 
National Guard in Afghanistan are stationed and every single one of 
them is a Hoosier. For anyone looking in who does not know the 
vernacular, that means from Indiana.
  This, of course, is a photograph that my colleague actually should be 
in this picture because the gentleman from Indiana actually brought 
this Indiana flag, but all of these soldiers, this photograph taken at 
the provisional reconstruction team site in Jalalabad are of some 1,500 
members of the Indiana Army National Guard, away from their families, 
away from their husbands and their spouses and their wives and their 
children and their grandchildren, and doing the kind of work day in and 
day out that is the building of schools, the establishing of fresh 
water, the establishing of basic services through these provisional 
reconstruction teams.
  We took a memorable helicopter ride on, I think it was a CH-53, a 
Hercules helicopter, very much like Luke Skywalker through the 
mountains of Jalalabad, hugging the mountainsides, and landed softly at 
this provisional reconstruction site. And these folks who, when they 
are not in uniform, are insurance salesmen and small business owners 
and pastors and business people and blue-collar workers, but here they 
are American soldiers and they are impacting the lives every day of 
regular, ordinary Afghanis. They are a source of enormous pride to this 
Hoosier for the sacrifices that they are making.
  As we think about the role, particularly of General Moorhead who 
commands the Hoosiers at Camp Phoenix, who are literally fanned out all 
across Afghanistan, I am reminded as I prepare to yield to my colleague 
for any memories of that part of our trip and the Hoosiers that we met, 
the night before we left, many of us, my colleague included, and our 
spouses were able to be with the President and the First Lady at the 
White House for a holiday celebration. In the few minutes I had with 
the President, I told him I was leaving for Afghanistan the next day 
and he thanked me for that, as the Commander in Chief would, and asked 
me to thank my delegation for going. And then I said to the President, 
you know, 15 percent of your Army National Guard over there are 
Hoosiers. And without missing a beat, the President of the United 
States said, ``That's

[[Page H702]]

why it's going so well, Mike.'' I told that to every single one of the 
Hoosiers that we met. I thought the President was just being nice, but 
when we went over there and saw the professionalism and the commitment 
and the compassion with which these Hoosiers are bringing, in many 
ways, civilization, stability and democracy to the people of 
Afghanistan, I became convinced that the President's generous comment 
was actually pretty close to right. I yield to the gentleman.

  Mr. CHOCOLA. I thank the gentleman for yielding. That is a great 
picture. If you will recall, just behind the group, I guess on their 
right, behind them is a school. We toured the school. The students 
there and the headmaster were so thankful to the soldiers that had 
helped rebuild the school and helped provide school supplies that the 
children previously really did not have. On the other side, you can see 
a little bit of it, there is an orchard.
  I think the one thing that we have to recognize is that our soldiers 
are really soldiers of mercy, that we can kill bad guys all day long 
and we need to kill the enemy, but for the most part what our soldiers 
are doing there is helping to build a future for the children and the 
families of Afghanistan. Right there in Jalalabad, helping to build a 
school, helping to cultivate an orchard and teaching the lessons of how 
to grow an economy. I think one of the most important lessons that I 
learned on our trip was that the two most effective tools in weapons in 
the war on terror is education and economic growth.
  One of the most stunning statistics that I learned during our trip 
was that 40 percent of the Afghan population is under 14 years of age, 
many of them in the picture you have there. If we do not help the 
Afghan children, the leaders of tomorrow, have a good education and 
have an opportunity for a good job in a growing economy, then they will 
choose a path that is destructive. They will choose a path of terrorism 
and crime. If they have an education and they have an opportunity for 
economic growth and a good job, they will be our partners in peace and 
democracy.
  Mr. PENCE. If I may interrupt the gentleman on that point, before the 
gentleman arrived, I was reflecting on our experience in Pakistan and 
in Islamabad; and I might, Mr. Speaker, with your permission, encourage 
the gentleman to speak about precisely that point, which is a profound 
point which he made both on national television appearances related to 
this trip, that economic development and education, I think his phrase 
was, are the principal means to combat terrorism long term.
  I am wondering, Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman might reflect on what 
we saw in the advances at what are known as madrassas or traditionally 
religious education facilities. We were one of the few American 
delegations to be permitted to visit a traditional Islamic madrassa in 
Islamabad, Pakistan. Mr. Speaker, I would ask the gentleman to reflect 
on that and how that bears on his keen insight about the need to 
encourage greater, more expansive education in this difficult part of 
the world.
  Mr. CHOCOLA. I thank the gentleman. Certainly a very important part 
of our trip was our stop in Pakistan. Again, I appreciate the 
gentleman's leadership in helping to arrange a visit to a madrassa.
  When I heard we were going to a madrassa, I was a little concerned, a 
little skeptical, that here we were going to visit a facility that 
basically educated religious fanatics, that hated America, hated 
western values and basically everything we stood for. I was pleased to 
find out that it was a moderate facility. The thing I was probably most 
encouraged to learn from the Pakistan government about education in 
madrassas is that the Pakistan government's strategy is to build 
secular schools right next to the extreme madrassas in their country.

                              {time}  1815

  Because when parents are given the opportunity to send their child to 
a school that provides education, boarding, and food when the average 
income is a few hundred dollars a year, certainly they will do that.
  But when the school only provides a religious education that provides 
no marketable skills in the economy, their child does not necessarily 
have a bright future, and their options are limited when they graduate, 
and they are susceptible to some of the radical teachings.
  But if their child is given the opportunity to go to a school next 
door that provides a secular education, that teaches them reading, 
math, and life skills to be able to be constructive, contributing 
members to a country and an economy, the parents are going to make the 
same choice every single time. They are going to make sure their child 
has a bright future, has every opportunity possible to them that they 
can gain through that education.
  So the Pakistan government is doing some very good things in support 
of combating terrorism, by going right to the root by addressing the 
hope and the opportunity of the youth of that part of the world so that 
they choose a positive path in life rather than terrorism and crime and 
a very destructive path in life.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for 
that memory and, more importantly, the observation about the critical 
importance of education.
  This photograph is just so meaningful to me, and I think I could live 
to be a lot older and have just a little bit more gray hair and not 
cherish any photograph more. And I hope anyone peeking in would examine 
this or even go to my Web site and take a careful look at it.
  As the gentleman will remember, we were walking down this road 
outside of the provisional reconstruction team's compound in Jalalabad. 
We were surrounded by soldiers carrying very large weapons and wearing 
body armor; and we were walking along what we can see is a small 
village, which, like most villages in that area, was walled with a 
rustic door. But what struck me and what strikes me about this 
photograph, it speaks to the gentleman's point about education and it 
speaks to the gentleman's point about whether it be in Afghanistan or 
Pakistan or other parts of the world that if we can win the hearts of 
the children for freedom and to understand the heart and the intent of 
the good people of the United States of America, we will have gone a 
long way toward defeating terrorism in the 21st century.
  What I love about this photograph is that, and the gentleman will 
recall, as we came down this street again in an intimidating 
environment, we were surrounded by big men carrying big guns and 
wearing body armor, but these children came streaming out of this door 
running up to the soldiers as long-lost friends. Every one of the 
soldiers, after checking the perimeter carefully, took a knee. Many of 
them began to speak in the native tongue with the children. The 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola), the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Flake), and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), all of us kind of 
fanned out and started learning names and chatting with children and 
posing for pictures; and the most striking thing to me about this 
photograph, and these are all children, and I am sure we were told but 
I cannot imagine what their families live on per year but it has to be 
pennies a day in our currency, and yet every child in this photograph 
is smiling. Every child in this photograph looks healthy and well fed.
  And I know the only reason that is true is because of the United 
States of America and because of the American soldier; that Jalalabad 
was an area that was destitute, impoverished, lacking in fundamental 
basic services, lacking in schools because, as we met with regular 
Afghans, they told us, We have never had little girls be able to come 
to school. The Taliban would never allow it, and we never had buildings 
to come to school in until the United States of America.
  So what this picture represents to me with almost an Old Testament-
looking wall and door behind it, which if one goes through Afghanistan, 
it is pretty Old Testament. I mean, it literally looks like a scene out 
of an Easter pageant. The whole country does, with mud walls and mud 
streets and ox-drawn carts, and yet to see these children and to see 
the looks on their faces that is evident in this photograph just

[[Page H703]]

moved me and blessed my heart at a level that said what these soldiers 
have done, what their families who have sacrificed their time and in 
some cases they have said good-bye forever to their sons who have 
fallen in Operation Enduring Freedom, is in some way recompensed by 
these smiles and by the affection.
  I do not know if the gentleman remembers that or the times that we 
went into classrooms in Jalalabad. The reaction that we got from 
children was just extraordinary to me to see the way these children 
were responding to American soldiers and to American personnel and to 
know they knew we were from America and that America was doing all of 
these things in Jalalabad and in Kabul and all over Afghanistan for 
their people. It just was deeply moving to me.
  Mr. CHOCOLA. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. PENCE. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.
  Mr. CHOCOLA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  I share his recollection and impact from those moments. They say a 
picture is worth a thousand words, and that one is worth several 
million, I think.
  I have always argued that the United States has been the greatest 
force for good in the history of the world. And we talk about the 
Greatest Generation, and we generally refer to those who served in 
World War II as that generation; and I think that is a very fitting 
description. But I think we are very fortunate that the reality is that 
every generation of Americans has been truly great, and most of those 
generations have been defined by those who volunteered to serve in this 
Nation's uniform.
  And as the President said before, we sacrifice for the liberty of 
strangers. And we were with some strangers who have just witnessed the 
first democratic election in their nation's history, and it is 
something that they will remember the rest of their lives, and they 
will grow up to be our friends and our allies and our partners in a 
better and safer world.

  We saw in this Chamber, during the President's State of the Union 
speech, one of the most moving moments I have ever witnessed when the 
mother of a fallen Marine embraced a young woman who had recently voted 
and been the advocate for human rights. In fact, that advocacy cost her 
father his life when he was assassinated by Saddam Hussein. So this is 
just a small representation that every American, I think, should be 
very proud of. The fact that children come streaming out behind a wall 
of a village with American soldiers in full uniform and full gear with 
smiles on their faces, and they run towards them, not away from them, 
and that we have the opportunity to sit there and talk to them and get 
to know them a little bit, and we only get to do that because of the 
greatness of this Nation and the greatness of those serving in uniform.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, that is especially well 
said, and it is fitting because in some of the time that we have 
remaining, I wanted to reflect on the American soldier and the 
opportunity that we had both at Camp Phoenix in Kabul, in Jalalabad, 
and then Bagram Air Force Base and probably for me as well being able 
to visit injured soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center on the 
way back.
  But one of the things that was a great privilege for me was, Mr. 
Speaker, along with the gentleman from Indiana, thinking of the 1,500 
Hoosier National Guard who were in Afghanistan and thinking, Mr. 
Speaker, of the holiday season that was upon us, the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Chocola) and I developed what we came to call Operation 
Holiday Greeting. And it resulted in our inviting our constituents, 
three quarters of a million people in north central Indiana and three 
quarters of a million people in eastern Indiana, to send in holiday 
greeting cards to soldiers. We announced the initiative on November 11; 
and within 10 days we received, Mr. Speaker, more than 25,000 lovingly 
handmade holiday greeting cards that we were able to take with us to 
Operation Enduring Freedom.
  This photograph captures just one of literally dozens and dozens of 
scenes where the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola), the gentleman 
from Arizona (Mr. Flake), and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis) 
and I were handing out greeting cards to the delight of soldiers who 
read them. One soldier in the foreground of this photograph has 
completely forgotten about us and is into what we can clearly see from 
the American flag was a hand-crafted card very likely by some grade 
schooler in South Bend or a grade schooler in Muncie, Indiana.
  And this was such an extraordinary blessing to be able to be a part 
of it because it does strike me, and then I will yield to the gentleman 
for his memories of this particular part of our trip, that having some 
politician walk up to someone on a far-flung theater of operation and 
deployment and say, Hey, the folks back home are praying for you, 
appreciate what you are doing, and have got you in their hearts, it is 
a whole other thing for that politician, who by and large we do not 
trust anyway, to hand to the soldier a fist full of lovingly crafted 
holiday greeting cards that say we are praying for them, we are 
thinking of them, we would love a note from them to say how things are 
going.
  I saw some of the biggest, toughest most grizzled soldiers at Bagram 
Air Force Base in that cafeteria where we wandered, when we walked up 
to them and they kind of had that lockjawed look and they do not know 
who we are and they do not know if they like us; and when we tell them 
we are Congressmen from Indiana, they think, well, that is okay, thanks 
for coming over and we appreciate it.
  But then when I would hand them the cards, these big guys would melt. 
Just one after another I saw more than one guy start to wipe tears from 
his eyes. And as the song goes, ``It Ain't Funny When a Soldier 
Cries,'' but I saw more than a few well up with tears, not because of 
anything I did or I would say anything that the gentleman from South 
Bend did, but these cards and the fact that in 10 short days Hoosiers 
of all ages, senior citizens, grade school kids, people at churches and 
synagogues, took time to sit down and express their prayers and their 
good wishes and their greetings to these soldiers.
  And the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) and I, I must say, Mr. 
Speaker, we lugged a lot of boxes, and I want to commend the gentleman 
from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) for his tireless effort in passing these 
cards out.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana for any memories 
of Operation Holiday Greeting.
  Mr. CHOCOLA. Mr. Speaker, the memories are obviously wonderful and 
rewarding. And as the gentleman recalls, we got to Camp Phoenix about 
midday and went to the mess hall where there were several soldiers in 
there enjoying lunch. It was a delicious lunch, as I recall. And having 
the opportunity during the holiday season to walk in there and hand a 
little piece of home to a Hoosier soldier unexpectedly is something 
that certainly I think we got more out of it than anyone else. And I 
have to thank our constituents for responding in such a generous way. 
It is an amazing response in a very short period of time for people to 
go to the effort to thank our men and women in uniform for their 
service, for being away from home at a very difficult time of year to 
be away from home.
  And the gentleman is right. We would hand them a pile of cards, and 
they would kind of forget we were there. They would start looking 
through those cards and reading the messages. There were a lot of 
unique approaches in the messages, and so it was a great thrill that 
certainly I will always remember. And I remember one soldier in 
particular whose name was Oliver Jackson, and I walked up to him, and 
he said, Hey, I know you. He said, I am from South Bend, Indiana.
  And I said, I know where that is and thank you for your service. So 
we sat down and talked for a while, and he said he was going to be home 
on leave in a couple weeks. And I said, When you come home, call me. 
And I gave him my contact information. And he did. He came home a few 
weeks later, and he did not stop by just to say hi. He stopped by. As 
the gentleman will recall, we gave a couple of flags to the soldiers at 
Camp Phoenix. We gave them an American flag and an Indiana flag. Then a 
constituent of mine has designed a battle flag that really commemorates 
and honors all the major battles that our Armed Forces have been in 
since the founding of our country.

[[Page H704]]

                              {time}  1830

  I left two of those flags there. In the spirit of our soldiers giving 
more than we could ever give them, and I will have to give you a copy 
of this, all of the Hoosier members of that unit signed that flag and 
sent it back. Oliver Jackson brought that flag back. It will be hanging 
in my office very proudly as one of the most memorable things that I 
will ever receive; which is we tried to do a nice thing for them, our 
constituents did, and I think they one-upped us, not only by serving 
our Nation so valiantly and bravely and effectively, but thinking about 
us at a time when they are away from home and saying ``thank you'' in 
an extraordinary way.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding, and I am jealous to learn about the signed battle flag, but 
it is to the gentleman's credit, because it was the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Chocola) who remembered to bring those flags from home, 
and I want to commend him again for his thoughtfulness in remembering 
to bring that for our soldiers, but also to have them return, to have 
them show their appreciation.
  I guess I just appreciate, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman's reflection on 
the character of the soldiers that we saw in Operation Enduring 
Freedom. There is a toughness there. I think, candidly, we were there 
at a very tough time of the year.
  I have had the privilege in my 45 years of never not being home for a 
little bit of Christmas. I have always been able to be home for part of 
Christmas. It is a grievous thing to not be home, and yet beyond what 
on the surface you could tell was not an easy time for many of them, 
was a seriousness and a professionalism and an understanding of the 
importance of what we are doing in Afghanistan, which is still a 
dangerous place.
  I guess that is where I would like to close our reflections tonight 
as we have talked about President Karzai and our meetings in Kabul, as 
we have talked about the children that we saw, the provisional 
reconstruction team, but is to say it is my hope that anyone looking 
in, Mr. Speaker, would understand that Afghanistan is not succeeding 
because there are no bad guys there. Afghanistan is not succeeding 
because it is an easier place to build a democracy than Iraq. 
Afghanistan is succeeding because American generosity and American 
power, in partnership with the good people of Afghanistan, is causing 
that success, day in and day out.
  As we approach, I believe, the parliamentary elections this coming 
April, where the legislative body of that government will be elected, 
that is all being made possible because the people of Afghanistan, who, 
as I suggested earlier in this conversation, it strikes me that from 
our conversations with regular Afghanis as well as President Karzai, is 
the one thing you hear from folks, is this: They are bone weary of war 
in Afghanistan, the war that was pressed down on them by the Soviet 
communists, the war that was pressed down on them through tribal in-
fighting, the war that was pressed down on them by the Taliban and al 
Qaeda under its patronage. And when the American military came in and 
the generosity of the American people was unleashed, the people of 
Afghanistan have opened their arms and said, ``Yes, come, stay, help us 
build stability, help us create a country that is no longer dependent 
on the narcotics trade. Help us transition to an agricultural 
economy.''
  But it is all working. I guess my real burden in trying to take up an 
hour of the people's time tonight, Mr. Speaker, and I will yield to the 
gentleman for any closing thoughts, is just to make sure that as we go 
into a debate over additional funding for Afghanistan, as we go into a 
debate for additional counternarcotics funding, and there will be those 
of us that would argue that those things should happen in the regular 
budget as opposed to the supplemental, but beyond all of those 
arguments, it is my hope that the American people would understand that 
we are succeeding in Afghanistan because of American generosity and 
American power and the Afghan people are making it happen.
  It is not happening automatically. It is not the absence of conflict 
or the absence of danger that is resulting in this success. It is in 
spite of those things that we are succeeding. And even though no news 
rarely makes it in the newspaper, the truth is if things are not 
blowing up on a daily basis, things slip out of the news, and 
Afghanistan has slipped out of the news and the American people tend 
to, and I think I am as guilty as the next person; before we went, I 
tended to think it is not that tough over there. It is tough. It is 
hard. It is commitment and focus every single day.
  But it is working, and it is my hope that we really celebrate that. 
As we have a debate over additional funding for Afghanistan, at every 
level, that we will understand that the good people of Afghanistan have 
embraced the American people with gratitude, they have embraced the 
American soldier, as the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) just 
recited, as the Iraqi woman embraced the mother of the fallen soldier 
just yards away from where we are standing now, and to understand that 
we must keep that commitment to bring these good people of Afghanistan 
the freedom they so richly deserve.

  I yield for closing remarks to the gentleman.
  Mr. CHOCOLA. Mr. Speaker, just once again I want to thank my 
colleague, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence), for leading the trip 
and leading tonight's discussion.
  I think it is important for the American people to understand how 
much success they have helped provide in Afghanistan. It never ceases 
to amaze me, the deafening silence that we fail to see in the national 
media about the successes that are being achieved in Afghanistan on a 
daily basis. And although the silence is deafening, the success is 
undeniable.
  I will never forget the opportunity to meet with General Petraeus 
when I was in Iraq, in Mosul, in the summer of 2003. General Petraeus 
pointed out that we have to make sure we understand that the money that 
we invest in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, it is important that we 
buy guns and bullets, but you cannot distinguish between military aid 
and humanitarian aid. It gets back to the most effective weapons on the 
war on terror, I think, are education and economic growth.
  If we can maintain our resolve, if we can prioritize those 
investments, I think we will look back at this period of history and 
say it was extraordinary in the growth of democracy around the world.
  I think it is unfortunate that the elections in Afghanistan were not 
celebrated here in the United States like I think they should have 
been. It was the defeat of the Taliban. The Taliban had said that they 
were going to disrupt the registration process. Over 10 million Afghans 
registered to vote. They said they would disrupt the elections. I think 
it was close to an 80 percent turnout, much higher than we have here in 
the United States. So the Taliban has been rendered relatively 
ineffective because of the investment we have made with the Afghan 
people, both in military action and force, as well as humanitarian aid.
  I was surprised that we met members from the United States Department 
of Agriculture, we met USAID members, we met State Department members, 
that are all over there in a relatively dangerous environment, that are 
risking their life to do the right thing because they understand that 
this is the right thing for a more safe and secure world, because the 
more jobs and the more education there is in Afghanistan, the safer we 
are here in the United States.
  So I think that the American people should be very proud of their 
investment, they should be very proud of their effort, they should 
certainly be very proud of the men and women in uniform that have done 
the heavy lifting. If we can maintain that focus and that resolve and 
commitment, I know this will be a safer world.
  Afghanistan and the 14-year-olds that are 40 percent of the country 
and younger will have hope and opportunity rather than oppression and a 
dead-end street for their future days. They will continue to be our 
partners, they will continue to run out of the front doors of their 
home and embrace us, and not run away from us and try to do to us harm.
  I hope we have been able to share just a little bit tonight with the 
American people about the hope and opportunity that is really taking 
place every

[[Page H705]]

single day. And I would encourage the American people, when they turn 
on the 6 o'clock news or any 24-hour news channel and they do not hear 
about what is going on in Afghanistan, that means it is one more day of 
success.
  So I yield back, and again thank the gentleman for all of his 
efforts.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I do want to express my profound gratitude to 
the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) for being willing to leave 
family and his constituents behind and travel, as we described tonight, 
through Islamabad, Pakistan; through Parachinar, where we met with 
tribal leaders; into Kabul, where we went to Camp Phoenix; through the 
mountains of Jalalabad to Bagram Air Base, and then out of the country.
  It was a great, great privilege to travel with the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Chocola), the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), and 
the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake), all of whom I think exemplified 
the very best of a servant's attitude about public service.
  I told many soldiers as we traveled that there was not hardly a 
person that I served in all of eastern Indiana who would not rather be 
standing right there in front of them thanking them for their service, 
assuring them of their prayers, and expressing the gratitude that the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) just described, that the American 
people feel for the success that the American soldier has wrought and 
is continuing to provide to the good people of Afghanistan.
  I close by just reminding, Mr. Speaker, anyone that might be looking 
in, what the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) heard from President 
Karzai. As I have said again and again tonight, Afghanistan is a place 
where American power and American generosity of work are working. But 
when the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) asked President Karzai at 
the presidential palace, ``What would you have us tell our constituents 
if you were there,'' and he said, ``Tell the American people our 
success is their success, and that the President of Afghanistan said 
congratulations, America, on being a part of freedom and stability and 
opportunity coming to the good people of this historic land.''
  So, Mr. Speaker, with a grateful heart for the opportunity to have 
led CODEL Pence through Pakistan and Afghanistan, I yield back the 
balance of my time.


                            LEAVE OF ABSENCE

  By unanimous consent, leave of absence was granted to:
  Mr. Wynn (at the request of Ms. Pelosi) for today on account of 
personal business.
  Mr. Reichert (at the request of Mr. DeLay) for today and the balance 
of the week on account of attending a funeral.

                          ____________________