[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 48 (Thursday, April 11, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING HARRISON AKINS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 11, 2013

  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, with the emerging debate on 
drones and their use, I recently had lunch here in Washington, DC with 
Harrison Akins, a former constituent of mine, to discuss the subject. 
He is a fine young man who grew up in Blount County in East Tennessee, 
and I have known him for many years.
  He is now a research fellow at American University working as the 
chief researcher on a book project with Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, the 
Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, the first 
Distinguished Chair of Middle East Studies at the U.S. Naval Academy, 
and the former Political Agent in charge of Waziristan in the Tribal 
Areas of Pakistan. Ambassador Ahmed's new book is called The Thistle 
and the Drone.
  This book examines the tribal societies targeted by America's drone 
campaigns in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, as well as other tribal 
societies involved in the war on terror.
  As I wrote in my August 2012 newsletter, Georgie Anne Geyer is one of 
this Nation's most senior and most highly-respected foreign policy 
columnists. She wrote recently that we ``are embarked upon missions 
mired in the fog of human nature, with robotic weapons that may relieve 
the threat to our human soldiers but that will cause many times more 
hatred toward America.''
  She wrote about inaccurate drones ``killing totally innocent people'' 
in several countries and quoted a Washington Post article that said 
``an escalating campaign of U.S. drone strikes is stirring increasing 
sympathy for al-Quaeda-linked militants and driving tribesmen to join a 
network linked to terrorist plots against the United States.'' Of 
course, a large amount of money is being made off the sale of those 
drones to the government.
  Mr. Speaker, we should heed the words of Benjamin Franklin: ``Those 
who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary 
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.''
  Harrison Akins is an extremely intelligent, capable young man who I 
believe will be a great leader for this Nation in the years ahead.
  His outstanding research on this book is a significant contribution 
in an area that deserves very serious and thoughtful consideration.
  The Thistle and the Drone gives us all pause to think about the 
future of drone warfare and the war on terror and the direction of our 
country, and I call it to the attention of my colleagues and other 
readers of the Record.

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