[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 82 (Tuesday, June 11, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H3257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FAILED POLICY IN AFGHANISTAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much.
Last week I was home, and on Saturday I had the pleasure to speak to
about 50 citizens in the Third District of North Carolina which I
represent. I carry this poster with me, Mr. Speaker, and I also have a
one-page flier. The purpose of this is to continue to wake up the
American people that we are in Afghanistan; and unless you have a loved
one there, you probably don't think about it. That's human nature. It's
not a criticism. But I take this and then I give the flier, and it's
got the cartoon.
Mr. Speaker, the cartoon has Karzai with a little debit card, and
he's standing at an ATM machine. At the top it says, ``CIA ATM.''
Karzai says, ``I'm just making a quick withdrawal.'' He's got bags of
cash at his feet. Sadly, there's a soldier in the background that says,
``I'd like to make a quick withdrawal from here.''
Last week we had two American soldiers killed and one civilian, and
the war keeps going on and on. We in Congress act like it's not
happening. I don't understand it. The President has signed a bilateral
strategic agreement with the Afghans that will keep us there from 2014
to 2024. We're spending $8 billion a month in Afghanistan. The CIA
admitted in a New York Times article that they have been giving tens of
millions of dollars for 10 years to Karzai. He's got to be one of the
richest men in the world. We keep borrowing the money from the Chinese
to give him money. I do not understand it, and I would like to read
just a couple of points from The New York Times CIA article:
The CIA money, Mr. Karzai told reporters, was an easy
source of petty cash, and some of it was used to pay off the
political elite, a group dominated by warlords. Mr. Karzai
said that when he met with the CIA station chief, ``I told
him because of all these rumors in the media, please do not
cut all this money, because we really need it.''
Well, Mr. Karzai, so do the American people. Here we are in Congress
cutting programs for children and senior citizens, and the Congress has
a deaf ear to Afghanistan. The bill coming up this week from the Armed
Services Committee, which I serve on, will have $85 billion additional
money going to Afghanistan.
Mr. Speaker, it is time for the American people to show outrage to
those of us in Congress and say it's time to bring our troops home.
It's time to stop wasting lives and limbs and getting money from
foreign countries, like China, that we have to borrow to pay Karzai.
I do not understand it, Mr. Speaker, and I'm pleased to say that the
people of the Third District of North Carolina, the home of Camp
Lejeune Marine Base--the Wright brothers took the first flight from my
district--they're tired of this war. They are fed up with it, and they
see no end to it.
We in Congress are not meeting our constitutional responsibility for
oversight. When you see the kind of money that I just made reference to
going to this crook in Afghanistan named Karzai, there should have been
hearings held on that money going to Afghanistan. I understand Benghazi
and I understand the IRS hearings and these other hearings that we're
having, but there are no hearings on the waste, fraud, and abuse in
Afghanistan.
Mr. Speaker, before I yield back, I want to first ask God to please
bless our men and women in uniform. I ask God to please bless the
families of our men and women in uniform. The families who've given a
child dying for freedom, God hold them in your arms. And God, I ask you
to please bless the House and Senate that we will do what is right in
the eyes of God for God's people. I will ask God to bless the President
of the United States that he will do what is right in the eyes of God
for God's people. And three times I will say from the bottom of my
heart, God please, God please, God please continue to bless America.
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