[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 26 (Thursday, February 16, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ACCELERATE OUR WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Vermont (Mr. Welch) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, on February 1 of this year, Defense Secretary 
Leon Panetta said that American forces would step back from a combat 
role in Afghanistan as early as mid-2013. This is a year faster than 
had been announced only months previously. He also added that U.S. 
troops would move into an advise-and-assist role to Afghanistan 
security forces. I know that most everyone who has joined me on this 
floor this morning would want a faster transition. To be frank, we wish 
we could have avoided much of this 10-year nation building altogether. 
I rise today to express my strong support for the administration's 
decision to reduce our military footprint on an accelerated timeline.
  Mr. Speaker, our soldiers, our men and women in uniform, will do and 
do do whatever it is we ask of them. Indeed, the sacrifices that our 
soldiers and their families have made have been extraordinary. Just 
this morning, with Congressman Donnelly, I met a family who lost their 
dad, and his son is here who was serving with him in Afghanistan. There 
is nothing that we can do to adequately express to them our enormous 
appreciation for their sacrifice.
  If we did not have men and women who, at the call of the Commander in 
Chief, would put on the uniform and report for duty and do what the 
Commander in Chief and this Congress authorized, we would not have the 
United States of America. But the obligation we have to the citizens 
from our districts that are willing to make that sacrifice is to give 
them a policy worthy of their willingness to make that sacrifice.
  It is time that we do all we can to accelerate our withdrawal from 
Afghanistan. The reason is this: That's what our national security 
requires.
  There was a very valid reason to go into Afghanistan. It was the home 
of Osama bin Laden. The Taliban gave him sanctuary. Al Qaeda had free 
hand. Our policy was right when it was started, but it transformed 
itself into a nation-building policy where our partner has become a 
corrupt Afghanistan Government that is unreliable, that is squandering 
taxpayer money, that is not cooperating with the American military.
  The question is: Should the American taxpayer and the American 
soldier be required to do nation building in Afghanistan, particularly 
when the threat of terrorism is real, but it is not a nation-centered 
threat? It is dispersed around the globe. The new American policy of 
counterterrorism, as opposed to counterinsurgency--that is, going after 
terrorists where they are as opposed to nation building where some may 
be--is the right direction for this country to go.
  Mr. Speaker, the policy announced by Mr. Panetta to accelerate that 
withdrawal is overdue and it is timely at this point. I strongly 
support it and urge my colleagues to do so as well.

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