[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 183 (Tuesday, December 8, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H13602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     THE COST OF WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Madam Speaker, I follow the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. 
DeFazio) and I do share his frustration as well. Mine is a little 
different, though. It is the cost of war in Afghanistan. My concern is, 
as the President has decided to send 30,000 additional troops to 
Afghanistan, I join my colleagues in both parties, and Barbara Lee from 
California, in saying that we should debate this policy on the floor of 
the House.
  I am one that is very upset that this Nation, since World War II, we 
never declare war anymore, we just pass resolutions on the floor and we 
give the President, whether it be a Republican or Democrat, the 
authority to make decisions to go ahead and send troops into certain 
areas.
  I do agree with Mr. Obama, the war should have always been 
Afghanistan and we should not have gone into Iraq, but that is history 
now. The problem is we are 9 years after we went into Afghanistan and 
now we are trying to catch up for the 8 years we spent in Iraq.
  Down in Camp Lejeune, which is in my district, the Third District of 
North Carolina, the day that Mr. Obama made the announcement that we 
would send 30,000 more troops to combat in Afghanistan, I want to read, 
Madam Speaker, just a few comments that were in the Jacksonville 
paper--again, that is the home paper for Jacksonville, North Carolina 
and, again, the home of Camp Lejeune Marine Base.
  ``With White House officials saying that President Obama will order 
about 30,000 more troops, including a brigade of marines from Camp 
Lejeune, into combat in Afghanistan, local military are reacting to the 
news with skepticism and concern.''
  Further down in the article, it says:
  Marine Sergeant Doug Copeland, who is scheduled to deploy with his 
1st Battalion, 8th Marines in October, said he approved of the troop 
surge as a means to assist troops already on the ground, but believed a 
date for leaving the country was coming too late. ``We should have 
dealt with Afghanistan in the first place,'' Copeland said. ``We've 
already been in this war for 7 or 8 years. We've got to call it quits. 
Our country needs to focus on our country now.''
  That is exactly what Mr. DeFazio was saying. This country is in bad 
financial shape, we are losing jobs every day, and what we need to do 
is concentrate on this country itself.
  I will read just another comment, Madam Speaker:
  ``HM2 Cagney Noland, a corpsman currently with Combat Logistics 
Regiment 27, said he doubted the proposed timeline would see troops out 
of Afghanistan.''
  Madam Speaker, the number of our troops with PTSD, with TBI, and with 
mental depression and anxiety is growing each and every day. Again, I 
have gotten to know many of the marines down at Camp Lejeune, from 
privates all the way up to generals. They will go and fight for this 
country, they want to do everything they can to defend this country and 
they will give their life, but we need to take into consideration the 
stress that we are putting on these troops.
  There is another article I want to make brief reference to that was 
in the New York Times on December 3 by Nicholas Kristof. It's called, 
``Johnson, Gorbachev, Obama.'' It is about the Vietnam War, it is about 
the Russians involved in Afghanistan, and now Mr. Obama's decision.
  I am not trying to second-guess the President. He's got a very 
difficult job, and I wish him well. In fact, I was one of the few 
Republicans that thanked him for taking his time before he decided what 
the solution should be or what the strategy should be for Afghanistan. 
But Madam Speaker, I think that we as a Congress should debate the 
policy.
  I said this just a moment ago, and I would like to say it again, I 
joined Barbara Lee in a letter to the Speaker of the House asking the 
Speaker of the House to please let us debate the policy of what we 
should be doing in Afghanistan before we pass any type of supplemental 
to financially support the troops. So, therefore, it is my hope that 
maybe in January or February of 2010 we will be granted a debate on the 
floor, whether it be for sending more troops to Afghanistan or fewer 
troops to Afghanistan, and we will come closer to meeting our 
constitutional responsibility than we have done, truthfully, since 
World War II.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to close as I always do. I have signed 
over 8,000 letters to families and extended families in this country 
because I regret that I ever voted to give President Bush the authority 
to send troops to Iraq. That is my pain that I've lived with, and 
writing the letters and signing the letters to the families is my way 
of saying I'm sorry that I did not meet my constitutional 
responsibility and vote my conscience on the floor of this House.
  With that, Madam Speaker, I would like to close these brief comments 
by asking God to please bless our men and women in uniform, ask God to 
please bless the families of our men and women in uniform, and ask God 
to please, in his loving arms, hold the families who have given a child 
dying for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. I would like to ask God to 
please give the House and Senate strength to do what is right for the 
next generation. I would like to ask God to give strength and wisdom 
and courage to the President of the United States. And I close by 
asking three times, God please, God please, God please continue to 
bless America.

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