[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 8, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H578-H579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       END THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Garamendi) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I stand here today to speak about the 
Afghanistan war. I commend President Obama's administration for the 
steps it has taken to bring the longest war in our Nation's history to 
a close.

[[Page H579]]

  Last week, Defense Secretary Panetta said that by mid- or the latter 
part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a 
training, advice, and assistance role. I urge the administration to 
fulfill this aspiration and bring our troops home to their families. 
They have sacrificed enough.
  The Afghanistan war began as a war of necessity. After the horrific 
September 11 attacks, we sent our troops to eliminate al Qaeda and 
their leaders and destroy their training camps to prevent a future 
terrorist attack. Our troops carried out this mission with 
extraordinary courage and dedication. Osama bin Laden was driven out of 
Afghanistan, and he is now dead.
  Furthermore, the intelligence community affirms that al Qaeda is 
virtually extinguished from Afghanistan; yet the war continues. End 
this war now and focus like a laser on terrorists wherever they may be.
  Our troops in Afghanistan are no longer fighting terrorists who pose 
a threat to the United States. They are now fighting domestic 
Afghanistan factions and defending a corrupt and inept Afghanistan 
Government. Our servicemembers are dying in another country's civil 
war. This has become a war of choice.
  I recently met with Lieutenant Colonel Danny Davis, who described to 
me what a civil war looks like on the ground. He has served two combat 
deployments in Afghanistan and has traveled throughout the country 
talking to U.S. troops stationed all over. A recent evaluation of 
Colonel Davis reads: ``His maturity, tenacity and judgment can be 
counted on in even the hardest situations, and his devotion to mission 
accomplishment is unmatched by his peers.''
  Now, this is what Colonel Davis has described as to what he has 
observed: ``What I saw bore no resemblance to the rosy official 
statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground. 
Entering this deployment, I was sincerely hoping to learn that the 
claims were true: that conditions in Afghanistan were improving. 
Instead, I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level.
  ``I saw the incredible difficulties any military force would have to 
pacify even a single area of any of those provinces; I heard many 
stories of how insurgents controlled virtually every piece of land 
beyond eyeshot of a U.S. or International Security Assistance Force, 
ISAF, base. I saw little to no evidence the local governments were able 
to provide for the basic needs of the people. Some of the Afghan 
civilians I walked with said the people didn't want to be connected to 
a predatory or incapable local government. From time to time, I 
observed Afghan security forces collude with the insurgency.''
  Colonel Davis' candid testimony reinforced my own conviction that 
there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, only the 
prospect of continued shedding of American blood in a war that is not 
ours to fight. Only through negotiated political settlement amongst the 
Afghan factions, not through an open-ended U.S. military presence, 
could Afghanistan become a stable and developing country.
  America faces new threats now. More than $1 trillion spent on two 
wars over the course of a decade undermines our financial stability and 
takes away much-needed funds for American jobs and investments at home. 
The Obama administration has shown courageous leadership in eliminating 
Osama bin Laden. They have also shown leadership in bringing the war in 
Iraq to an end and in planning to ensure that the U.S. military 
commitment in Afghanistan is not an open-ended one. As President Obama 
clearly stated in his speech on the drawdown plan last year, we need to 
focus on nation-building at home. I agree. I strongly support ending 
U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan and bringing our troops home by 
mid-2013, if not sooner. It's us, the 435 Members of this body, the 
United States Congress, that can choose when this war ends.

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