[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 123 (Thursday, September 13, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H5925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. First, I join the American people and the Members of 
Congress in extending my deepest sympathy to the families of the four 
Americans killed yesterday in Libya. It was such a tragedy.
  Mr. Speaker, there's another tragedy. It's called Afghanistan. Like 
most of my colleagues, last month, I was home. I've been here in 
Washington 3 days. Back home, as well as the last 3 days here, more and 
more people are coming in concerned about budget cuts, worried about 
sequestration. We all are hearing it. Yet there's no debate about 
Afghanistan. It just keeps going on and on and on.
  I'm pleased to say that next Thursday, a group of Democrats and 
Republicans have joined me for a press conference. The author of this 
book, called ``Funding the Enemy,'' subtitled, ``How U.S. Taxpayers 
Bankroll the Taliban,'' Douglas Wissing, is coming to Washington next 
Thursday, and we will hold a news conference at 10 o'clock. The reason 
for this is to continue to remind Congress the American people have 
been speaking out about pulling our troops out of Afghanistan sooner 
rather than later. I hope that this news conference with Mr. Wissing 
will continue to beat the drum of bringing our troops home in 2013, not 
2014. That's the President's plan. That's the plan that most 
Republicans in leadership have agreed to. But that's the end of 2014. 
How many more young men and women have to give their life, their legs, 
their arms for a failed policy?
  In this book, ``Funding the Enemy,'' and also at the news conference, 
we will have the former Inspector General of Afghanistan, who is a 
marine general. General Fields will join Douglas Wissing and a group of 
Republicans and Democrats to talk about the failed policy and how many 
times we send millions and millions and millions of dollars to 
Afghanistan and it never gets to the villages it's supposed to help; 
how many times we send millions and millions of dollars to Afghanistan 
and it's not accounted for. Somebody has taken the money. It's 
America's money. It's the money that we could be using here to save 
programs and to save jobs. But, again, Congress is not talking about 
Afghanistan.
  I will continue to come to the floor, Mr. Speaker, and talk about the 
waste of life, the waste of money, and how it's unfair to the American 
taxpayer. And more importantly, it's unfair to the military families. 
Many of the marines in my district--and I'm sure in the United States 
Army--have been to Afghanistan three and four times. Truthfully, 
nothing has changed. If I could have been an adviser to the President, 
I would have said: Mr. Obama, you got bin Laden. You have dispersed al 
Qaeda. Let's bring our troops home. That has not happened--and it will 
not happen until 2014. I think 2014 will slip into 2015.
  So it's my hope that after this election that those of us who I hope 
win come back here and let's take a new approach and look at 
Afghanistan. Whether it's Mr. Obama or Mr. Romney, let's try to prevail 
upon them as a Congress to start bringing the troops out in the spring 
of 2014. It's not fair to the families. It's not fair to broken bodies 
of those who return with lost legs.
  Mr. Speaker, before I close, as I do many, many times, I ask God to 
please bless our men and women in uniform, to please bless the families 
of our men and women in uniform, to please hold in His arms the 
families who have given a child dying for freedom in Afghanistan and 
Iraq. I ask God to bless my colleagues in the House and the Senate. And 
I will ask God three times, Mr. Speaker, please God, please God, please 
God, continue to bless America.

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