[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 167 (Thursday, December 16, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H8522]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REBUILDING OUR OWN NATION

  (Mr. HIMES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I make a point every day to look in The Times 
at that black box, usually on page 7 or 8, that lists the names of 
those young men and women who have given their lives in Afghanistan.
  Yesterday, it struck me, as we go into Christmas, that there were 
seven names on that list--six of them under the age of 25. Two of them, 
Ken Necochea and Derek Simonetta, were only 21 years old. I wonder if 
they'd ever bought a drink in a bar or in the country in which they 
were serving. On the front page of The New York Times: U.S. 
Intelligence Offers Dim View of Afghan War.
  I say all this because this time last year I was in Afghanistan, 
watching the good work that these young men and women are doing--
building roads, building markets, building a nation--and reflecting on 
the fact that this is a nation that, for 1,000 years, has spit out 
foreigners as sport.
  As we go into Christmas and I think about the kids in my city of 
Bridgeport, whose schools have leaking roofs, whose highways are 
crumbling, whose rails are coming apart, I wonder, Mr. Speaker: Is it 
not time that we start rebuilding this Nation, not one that seems to 
not want us there?

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