[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 41 (Friday, March 19, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E422-E423]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ATTACK ON KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 19, 2010

  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, a team of militants launched a 
spectacular assault at the heart of the Afghan government on Monday, 
January 18, with two men detonating suicide bombs and the rest fighting 
to the death only 50 yards from the gates of the presidential palace.
   The attack paralyzed the city for hours, as hundreds of Afghan 
commandos converged and opened fire. The battle unfolded in the middle 
of Pashtunistan Square, a traffic circle where the palace of President 
Hamid Karzai, the Ministry of Justice and the Central Bank, the target 
of the attack, are located.
   As the gun battle raged, another suicide bomber, this one driving an 
ambulance, struck a traffic circle a half-mile away, sending a second 
mass of bystanders fleeing in terror. Afghan officials said that three 
soldiers and two civilians--including a child--were killed, and at 
least 71 people were wounded.
   The war in Afghanistan is dynamic, fluid, and ever-evolving. What 
was true 9 months

[[Page E423]]

ago is no longer the case. This means both that we cannot rely on our 
previous successes and that our current shortcomings can be fixed. It 
should give us hope but not foolhardy confidence. What the Kabul 
attacks prove is that we constantly have to be adjusting our strategy 
to keep up with the evolution of our enemy. The Taliban are a mostly 
rural phenomenon in a mostly rural country; the overwhelming majority 
of United States troops are deployed in small outposts in the 
countryside.
   On most days, the war does not reach the urban centers, but on 
January 18 it did. Our strategy must be flexible enough to adapt. So to 
set an arbitrary deadline, to pull out our troops of Afghanistan in 
2011, not only endangers our troops on the ground but also the ultimate 
success of our mission. We must finish the fight, root out the Taliban, 
and destroy al-Qaeda.

                          ____________________