[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 105 (Tuesday, July 14, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8066]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, President Obama has said that our 
Nation's policy in Afghanistan rests on a three-legged stool. The three 
legs are: One, security, which means more troops; two, economic 
development; and three, helping the Afghan Government to do a better 
job of serving the needs of the Afghan people.
  Last week, National Security Adviser James L. Jones gave a frank 
assessment about the strategy. He made it clear that the most important 
leg of the strategy is economic development. This is what he said, and 
I quote him: ``This war will not be won by the military alone. We tried 
that for years. The piece of our strategy that has to work in the next 
year is economic development. If that is not done right, there are not 
enough troops in the world to succeed.''
  Madam Speaker, I welcome Jones' comments and agree with him 
completely about the importance of economic development. The 
administration must commit more to the economic strategy.
  Look at the supplemental funding bill for Afghanistan which Congress 
passed last month and which I voted against and you will see that we 
have our priorities wrong. Ninety percent of the bill's funding goes 
toward purely military operations, while only 10 percent goes to 
support smart power, which includes economic development, humanitarian 
aid, and diplomacy. Madam Speaker, a 90/10 split favoring a military 
option is a doomed strategy that has virtually no chance of succeeding.
  To win the battle for Afghanistan, we must show the Afghan people 
that the United States is helping build better lives for themselves. 
But after 7 years of occupation, the Afghan people don't see enough 
evidence that their lives are better now than they were before we 
arrived. In fact, in some ways, their lives have worsened. That's 
because we relied almost exclusively on the military leg of the stool 
and ignored economic development and the other elements of smart power. 
As a result, some Afghans now join the Taliban out of a sense of 
resentment and frustration. Some support the Taliban simply because 
they are poor and the Taliban will pay them.
  Mariam Nawabi, a former senior adviser to the Afghan American Chamber 
of Commerce and an activist for Afghan women, recently was asked what 
advice she would give President Obama, and here's what she said: ``I 
would tell him to direct more money into economic development and the 
creation of jobs. To end the violence, the money needs to reach the 
villages. If the money doesn't get to the village itself, there is no 
change and the young men are left without support and become fodder for 
the Taliban.''
  Madam Speaker, we must redirect our mission in Afghanistan. We must 
shift our resources towards a civilian surge, a surge of experts and 
workers who can help the Afghan people to develop their economy, and 
our military forces actually could be redirected to support these 
efforts. We must also have a diplomatic surge, a surge that engages all 
of Afghanistan's neighbors in an effort to assist the Afghan people and 
shore up the central government.
  In addition, we must develop a series of rigorous metrics to evaluate 
the progress of these efforts and report the results to the Congress of 
the United States and to the American people which will then send the 
message that our involvement in Afghanistan is not open-ended. We can 
also use this process to develop a timeline for the full redeployment 
of our troops and military contractors out of Afghanistan.
  And finally, Madam Speaker, the government of Kabul must eliminate 
corruption. They must respect the rule of law and show that it is 
working on behalf of the Afghan people.
  Madam Speaker, the previous administration failed in Afghanistan 
because it did not understand the importance of smart power. President 
Obama does. That's an important step forward. But our next step is to 
put smart power to work, which will bring peace to Afghanistan, and it 
will strengthen America's national security.

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