[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 105 (Thursday, July 15, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H5660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     DECLARE VICTORY IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. As you can see, there are untold stories of 
valor on the front lines of war around the world. We can be very proud 
as Americans of the resilience of our men and women in the United 
States military and those valiant animals who stand by them and the 
support that families have given to them.
  I stand here as a proud American not out of arrogance, but simply out 
of recognition that we are the front-liners for peace and democracy. I 
had the privilege of spending the last week in Afghanistan, not closed 
in in a small room, but traveling throughout the country, visiting with 
our commander on the ground, visiting with the international allied 
forces, being briefed and seeing in action the Afghan National Security 
Forces, meeting the leadership of the Afghan Government in Kabul, going 
down to Kandahar and being out on a command post and a check site that 
was engaged with Afghans on the highway. I got a sense of a country--of 
which I chair the Afghan Caucus in this Congress. And I want what is 
best for people who are striving for democracy and freedom.
  I want to say to my colleagues that I stand here asking us to do what 
we did not do in Vietnam, which was to recognize the valiant and 
outstanding service of our men and women, and to understand victory had 
been achieved. Today we have two Vietnams side by side, North and 
South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North 
Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace. I would look for a 
better human rights record for North Vietnam, but they are living side 
by side because that was a civil war.
  And because the leadership of this Nation did not listen to the 
mothers and fathers who bore the burden of 58,000 dead and did not 
declare victory, the mounting deaths, the violence continued going up 
and up. Rather than understanding the political nature of the war in 
Vietnam, we did not listen to those families. So we mourned. But I say 
today they were valiant heroes, proud of them, although fallen, and 
proud of those who lived.
  As I look back on Afghanistan and the past week, I will say to you 
that it is time not out of defeat, but it is time in victory to return 
home. Our soldiers can come home in victory, for not one more treasure 
should be cast in this war that is a civil war. Al Qaeda is not present 
in Afghanistan. And we have the opportunity to cast over to the Afghan 
civilian government, which is now working to build up the Afghanistan 
National Security Forces, which we expect to be some 300,000 strong 
over the next couple of months, national police, and national army, 
trained by the brilliance of our young men and women.
  We understand the military says the job is yet not done, conditions 
on the ground. Conditions are movable. They are always changing. What 
you have to look at is whether you have a government that has the 
resolve to lead itself. President Karzai must stand against corruption, 
he must fight to eradicate the poppy crop, he must stop the bribery so 
that farmers can get their products to market. That is a civilian 
challenge. That is a challenge of the Afghan people. He must get 
electricity with the money that has been given to him down in the 
south.
  But to go into the NATO hospital, or to go into a hospital in 
Germany, to see the brutality of the IED injuries, to see the lost 
limbs--we have claimed victory. We have provided an opportunity for 
President Karzai to lead.

                              {time}  1520

  And so I'm a proud American; again, not standing here in arrogance, 
but for the sacrifice of the reservists and others who have come and 
the full-time military willing to stay as long as the civilian 
leadership of this country demands that they stay.
  And so I say to the moms and dads and families who've sacrificed 
their loved ones both in terms of those who now serve us and those who 
have fallen in battle, we cannot thank you enough. And none of us can 
mourn as you're mourning if you have lost a loved one. But we can say 
``thank you'' by bringing our troops home with a hero's welcome, 
something we have not done probably since World War II.
  It is time to bring our troops home, to declare victory, and to thank 
them for being heroes, not only of America but for this world, in the 
name of peace and freedom.

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