[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 110 (Thursday, July 21, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H5287-H5288]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from

[[Page H5288]]

North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. On Tuesday, the House passed H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap, and 
Balance bill. I was amazed by the $120 billion approved to fund the war 
on terror. I, like many of my colleagues, agree that we must continue 
to fight terrorism, but I do not understand why we are funding the 
civil war in Afghanistan.
  I do not understand why Members of Congress want to spend $10 billion 
a month in Afghanistan when our people back home are struggling. I can 
assure you the American people do not understand it either. In June a 
poll was conducted by the Pew Research Center where 56 percent of the 
American people polled said bring our troops home now, not later.
  Mr. Speaker, I brought back the picture of Eden and Stephanie Balduf. 
Their father, Sergeant Kevin Balduf, and Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin 
Palmer died. And that continues to haunt me, and the way they died 
continues to haunt me. That's the reason I wanted to bring this picture 
down here again.
  They were given the task to train Afghans to be policemen. The two 
were shot and murdered by one of the trainees. What really haunts me is 
the email Sergeant Balduf sent to his wife the day before he was shot 
and killed. And I quote the email: ``I don't trust them. I don't trust 
them for anything, not for anything at all.''
  Why in the world do we continue to send our young men and women 
overseas to get themselves blown up, shot, and murdered by people they 
are trying to train?
  These little girls are standing at their daddy's funeral at Arlington 
Cemetery.
  Mr. Speaker, that brings me to the last email I received from a 
retired marine general. I called him about 20 months ago and I said, I 
made a mistake on Iraq. I don't want to make one on Afghanistan. Will 
you advise me?
  He said, Yes, I will.
  Let me read the one that just ties in to this issue of this sergeant 
and this marine colonel being murdered by a trainee in Afghanistan. The 
general said: ``Get real with `training' an army and police force. All 
we are doing is training eventual new members of the Taliban.'' He 
further stated: ``Trainers are doing a wonderful job, but we don't have 
the time to `make' an army or police force in Afghanistan.''
  The general closed his email to me by saying this: ``Every day 
someone dies.''

                              {time}  1010

  It is time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. How many more 
children have to cry at a mom or dad's grave site because their mother 
or daddy went to Afghanistan to prop up a corrupt leader named Karzai 
that we send $10 billion a month to? I hope no other children have to 
cry like Eden and Stephanie.
  That brings me to my close, Mr. Speaker. Several weeks ago, Eugene 
Robinson in his editorial titled, ``Afghan Strategy: Let's Go,'' wrote, 
``We wanted to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, and we did. Even so, 
say the hawks, we have to stay in Afghanistan because of the dangerous 
instability across the border in nuclear-armed Pakistan. But does 
anyone believe the war in Afghanistan has made Pakistan more stable?''
  No, it has not. In fact, it's more fragile now than it's ever been.
  ``The threat from Afghanistan is gone. Bring the troops home.''
  Eugene Robinson is not a conservative. We see him on TV all the time. 
And I will say that he nailed it with this editorial: The threat from 
Afghanistan is gone. Bring them home.
  Mr. Speaker, as I close always on the floor of the House, for these 
little girls who have lost their father and all the children who have 
lost their fathers and moms over in Afghanistan and Iraq, I ask God to 
please bless our men and women in uniform; I ask God to please bless 
the families of our men and women in uniform. I ask God, in his loving 
arms, to hold the families that have given a child dying for freedom in 
Afghanistan and Iraq. I ask God to please bless the House and Senate, 
that we will do what is right in the eyes of God for His people. I ask 
God to give strength, wisdom, and courage to Mr. Obama that he will do 
what is right in the eyes of God for his people.
  And I will say three times, God, please, God, please, God, please 
continue to bless America.

                          ____________________