[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 3, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H6127-H6128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IT IS TIME FOR SMART POWER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, everyone here in the House of 
Representatives knows that I've been a critic of our Nation's long 
occupation of Iraq. Our strategy there has relied almost exclusively on 
military power, which is what got us into this quagmire that we still 
can't escape. Now I fear we're making the very same mistake in 
Afghanistan and Pakistan because over 90 percent of the supplemental 
budget for Afghanistan and Pakistan, which the House passed just a few 
weeks ago and which I opposed, goes strictly toward military purposes, 
and less than 10 percent goes toward the building of our smart power in 
that region.
  ``Smart power'' means investing in humanitarian assistance, in 
economic development, in reconciliation, and in reconstruction. It 
means helping the Afghan people to improve their transportation, their 
health care, their education, and their agricultural systems. It means 
investing in their judiciary and law enforcement systems to expand the 
rule of law. It means creating

[[Page H6128]]

jobs, building up local capacity and improving the lives of women and 
girls, and it means strengthening our diplomatic operations in the 
region.
  All of these efforts are desperately needed to shore up the fragile 
governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They're desperately needed 
because we must offer the people a better life. We must give the people 
of Afghanistan real hope for a better future because that is the best 
way to defeat the Taliban, and it is the best way to bring peace and 
stability to the region. We will never be able to do that if we nickel 
and dime smart power.
  Even our own counterinsurgency strategy recognizes this. It calls for 
an 80-20 ratio. That means 80 percent of our funds being spent on the 
smart investment that I just mentioned with 20 percent going to purely 
military spending. Currently, we've got a 90-10 split going the 
opposite way. We're actually ignoring our own best strategy.
  On this subject, I would like to call the House's attention to 
remarks that were recently made by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, the former 
High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain. He spoke about 
Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the very explosive area 
on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
  Referring to the tribes there, he said, ``A successful strategy to 
deal with them is not to take them head on--sending in troops, throwing 
grenades and missiles or sending in tanks.''
  Instead, he said that we should be working to win the hearts and 
minds of the tribal members, of those who have a great sense of pride 
and dignity. He said, if America did that, there would be ``resistance 
to the Taliban, not from 30,000 feet in the sky but right here on the 
ground.''
  He also said, ``The one thing every Pakistani wants for his kids is 
education.'' If America helped to improve education in that country, he 
said that we could turn things around in a few years and that America's 
greatest enemies will become America's allies.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people want a strategy for Afghanistan and 
Pakistan, a strategy that will protect the lives of our troops, that 
will strengthen our national security and that will help the people of 
that region to lead better lives. I've recommended a plan to accomplish 
this. It's House Resolution 363, the SMART Security Platform for the 
21st Century. I'm hoping every Member of the House reads it and 
remembers that smart power is not soft power. It's the real power, the 
power we need to keep America safe and to make our world peaceful.

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