[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 14, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H5594]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

  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, when we were debating the issue of 
Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago, during the 3 minutes of time that I 
had, I brought up the issue of rules of engagement. These are the rules 
that our men and women in uniform in Afghanistan and Iraq have to 
follow if they're going to be confronted by the enemy.
  Well, I have been very disappointed that we've put so many 
restrictions on our men and women in uniform that I, along with two 
other Members of the House--Jeff Miller, a Congressman from California 
and Doug Lamborn, a Congressman from Colorado--wrote to Chairman Ike 
Skelton and Ranking Member Buck McKeon, and we asked for a classified 
hearing on this issue of the rules of engagement.
  And, Madam Speaker, in the letter that we wrote to the chairman and 
ranking member, we cited in there an article from The Washington Post 
that was entitled, ``This is not how you fight a war.'' One example, 
one of the United States Army officers serving in southern Afghanistan 
quoted in this article, ``Minimizing civilian casualties is a fine 
goal, but should it be the be-all and end-all of the policy? If we 
allow soldiers to die in Afghanistan at the hands of a leader who says, 
`We're going to protect civilians rather than soldiers,' what's going 
to happen on the ground? The soldiers are not going to execute the 
mission to the best of their ability. They won't put their hearts into 
the mission. That's the kind of atmosphere we're building'' in 
Afghanistan.
  Another soldier in the same article was quoted as saying, ``This is 
not how you fight a war, at least not in Kandahar! We've been 
handcuffed by our chained chain of command.''
  Madam Speaker, also from that article, I would like to read another 
paragraph: ``For troops on the ground, the directive has lowered their 
morale and limited their ability to pursue insurgents. They note that 
Taliban fighters seem to understand the new rules and have taken to 
sniping at troops from inside homes or retreating inside houses after 
staging attacks.''
  This is an ongoing issue and problem for our military. In fact, in a 
June article, there was a syndicated column by George Will, and I will 
read just one paragraph. In ``a recent email from a noncommissioned 
officer serving in Afghanistan'' . . . ``he explains why the rules of 
engagement for U.S. troops are too prohibitive for coalition forces to 
achieve sustained tactical successes.''
  And, Madam Speaker, also during that debate a couple of weeks ago, I 
held up these two articles from Marine Times, ``left to die. They call 
for help. Negligent Army leadership refuse and abandon them on the 
battlefield. Four marines and one Army killed'' because they did not 
get the support that they needed because of rules of engagement.
  I also have spoken to a father from Maine who was quoted in another 
Marine Times article, ``Caution killed my son. Marine families blast 
suicidal tactics in Afghanistan.'' The father said to me--he, himself, 
a retired marine--that my son and the platoon, if they had gotten the 
cover that they needed the day before when they saw Taliban soldiers 
going into a cave--they called for air support. The helo came over the 
gunship but did not fire into the cave because the pilot said, ``We 
cannot see the enemy,'' yet the young lieutenant had just reported to 
them, ``We saw the Taliban soldiers go into the cave.''
  Madam Speaker, it is time to get out of Afghanistan. We have put our 
troops over there in harm's way, and we're not letting them fight as 
they should be able to fight.
  Before I close, in a poll from CBS just 2 days ago, ``Should U.S. Set 
a Timetable for Withdrawing Troops from Afghanistan?'' 54 percent said 
``yes,'' 41 percent said ``no,'' and 5 percent were undecided.
  Madam Speaker, I want to close by asking God to please bless our men 
and women in uniform, to please bless the families of our men and women 
in uniform. God, in Your loving arms, hold the families who have given 
a child dying for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. And I will ask God 
to please bless the House and Senate that we will do what is right in 
the eyes of God. And I will ask God to give wisdom, strength, and 
courage to the President of the United States that he will do what is 
right in the eyes of God. And three times--God, please, God, please, 
God, please continue to bless America.

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