[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 127 (Thursday, September 10, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H9416]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  AMERICA MUST NOT OCCUPY AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Polis). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of one 
of the most tragic days in America's history, September 11, 2001.
  On that day, our Nation was attacked, and nearly 3,000 Americans were 
killed. We continue to grieve for them and for their families, and 
tomorrow we celebrate a national day of remembrance and service in 
their honor and memory.
  Soon after 9/11, Mr. Speaker, American troops invaded Afghanistan, 
where the attacks had been planned. Many Americans have considered the 
war in Afghanistan a good war. Our troops have shown incredible skill 
and bravery in a very difficult conflict over those 8 years. But now, 8 
years later, our troops are still in Afghanistan and are still facing a 
growing insurgency. The Taliban appears to have regained control of 
half the country, and many al Qaeda operatives have fled to Pakistan. 
As a result, a growing number of Americans now oppose a war that no 
longer serves our national security interests.
  In three recent polls, more Americans called for reductions in our 
troop levels rather than increases, and in one poll, the majority of 
Americans said that the war in Afghanistan is simply not worth 
fighting.
  Despite this, General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO 
forces in Afghanistan, is expected to ask the President to commit more 
troops. There are reports that General McChrystal may ask for as many 
as 30,000 more, which would bring the American troop level to about 
100,000. Enlarging the American footprint in Afghanistan, Mr. Speaker, 
will almost certainly lead the Afghanistan people to see the United 
States as an occupying force, and if history has taught us anything, it 
is that the Afghan people will resist any foreign occupation. That is 
the bitter lesson that the Soviet Union and the British empire learned.
  Even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is concerned about the 
problem. In a recent interview, Secretary Gates said he asked General 
McChrystal about the implications of significant additional forces and 
whether the Afghans will see this as the United States becoming more of 
an occupier rather than a partner.
  Secretary Gates also spoke last week about the failures of previous 
foreign forces in Afghanistan. He said one reason for their failures is 
that the Afghans concluded that they were there for their own imperial 
interests and not there for the interests of the Afghan people.
  Mr. Speaker, the worst thing our Nation can do right now is to 
stumble into an occupation that the Afghan people do not want, one that 
will last many years, that will cost many lives and that will cost 
hundreds of billions of dollars that we can't afford.
  We should not double-down on a strategy that hasn't worked. We need a 
brand new strategy, one that is based, among other things, on economic 
development for the Afghan people, on better governance and on 
improvements in policing and in intelligence. We need to have 
strategies that are the best ways to capture violent extremists, and we 
must have a clear exit strategy and a timetable for the withdrawal of 
our brave troops.
  If we do that, if we can stop more people from dying--our troops and 
the Afghan people--we will truly be honoring the 3,000 who died on 
September 11, 2001.

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