[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 13, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                              AFGHANISTAN

  (Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I just returned from 
Afghanistan yesterday on a delegation led by the gentlewoman from 
California, Susan Davis. We are all blessed by the sacrifice of our 
servicemen and women, our diplomats and other civilians in harm's way. 
We were moved by the courage of the Afghan women, in whose success 
rests the future of Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, it's time for the President and this Congress to be 
straight about what it means to win in Afghanistan. Our spending must 
reflect our goal, and right now it does not. This is not a 90 percent, 
in-out, 2-year military operation, and everyone there knows it. Winning 
requires a long-term plan to return 90 percent illiteracy to literacy, 
to grow food crops to replace poppies, to transform a 16th century 
economy to the 21st century.
  It's a generation of change, and we have to have a plan while we are 
there and one for leaving. We best honor our men and women who serve 
and give their lives by being honest. They stand on the wall. They hold 
the line. They cross the wire. And the least we can do is prepare the 
American people to match their sacrifice with real and long-term 
commitment for Afghanistan and for our own national security.

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