[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 80 (Thursday, May 31, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H3276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HEARING FROM A BRAVE AFGHANISTAN TRUTH-TELLER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, later today I will join a bipartisan group 
of Members at a panel discussion about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. 
Joining us as a special guest will be Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, 
one Afghanistan veteran who has spoken the devastating truth about 
conditions on the ground.
  During his second tour of duty in 2010 and 2011, he interviewed or 
interacted with 250 soldiers at all levels in several Afghan provinces. 
He also spoke with Afghan security officials and with civilians. He 
prepared both a classified and an unclassified report about what he saw 
and what he heard. Here is some of what he concluded in his own words, 
Mr. Speaker. He said:

       What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements 
     by U.S. military leaders.

  He said:

       I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every 
     level. I heard many stories of how insurgents controlled 
     virtually every piece of land beyond eyeshot of a U.S. or 
     international security assistance force base.

  And he said:

       From time to time, I observed the Afghan security forces 
     collude with the insurgency.

  Davis tells us that one Afghan police captain actually laughed at him 
when Davis asked about how they responded to a Taliban attack. No, we 
don't go after them, said the captain. That would be dangerous.
  One senior officer told Lieutenant Colonel Davis: How do I look a 
soldier's wife in the eye and tell her that her husband died for 
something meaningful?
  Mr. Speaker, is that what we have to show for nearly 11 years of war 
and hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money? As we 
recognized Memorial Day on Monday and over the past weekend, don't we 
at least owe it to the war dead and their families to ensure that their 
sacrifice was for a worthy cause?
  Lieutenant Colonel Davis did not have to come forward. Without a 
doubt, it would have been better for his military career to keep his 
head down and his mouth shut. But with the stakes so great and the 
costs so high, he felt that he had a greater obligation to the truth.
  Lieutenant Colonel Davis' story must be heard. It needs to be heard 
because it balances the last 10 years at the Armed Services Committee 
and in various other briefings and forums where we've been exposed to 
nothing more than the official line on how this war is going. It's time 
we got firsthand experience and a firsthand version from someone who 
has seen the dysfunction of our Afghan policy at the ground level.
  In February, a group of Members sent a letter to House leadership 
asking that Lieutenant Colonel Davis have the opportunity to testify at 
a formal hearing of a relevant committee of the House, but this 
invitation has not been extended to him. So, thanks to the leadership 
of my friends, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Congressman Walter Jones, 
we will convene a panel later today to give Lieutenant Colonel Davis a 
chance to tell what he saw in Afghanistan.
  I invite all Members of Congress to attend. It's at 2 p.m. at B 318, 
Rayburn. If you do, you will hear convincing and overwhelming evidence 
that this war is a colossal failure, and it's time, finally--after more 
than a decade--to bring our troops home.

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