[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 64 (Thursday, May 1, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2604-S2605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AFGHANISTAN AND UKRAINE SECURITY
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I just returned from a trip to Afghanistan
and Ukraine where I reviewed the security situation in each country as
chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
In each country, I met with military leaders and with civilian
leaders and representatives of civilian society. The overwhelming
impression I came away with is that American leadership remains
critical, that others who are struggling for democracy and freedom see
us as an essential friend and ally, and support for those who share
those values must remain a cornerstone of our foreign policy and as
essential to our own security.
In Afghanistan, I met with senior leaders of both our military and
the Afghan military, including General Dunford, the commander of U.S.
and coalition forces, and Afghan Minister of Defense Mohammedi. They
reported that the transition of security responsibility to the
Afghanistan National Security Forces--ANSF--has gone even better than
we had hoped, with no significant loss of security in the country
despite the withdrawal of tens of thousands of American and coalition
troops. U.S. and Afghan leaders alike expressed satisfaction with the
ability of the newly built and much larger ANSF to successfully protect
the Afghan people, to defeat Taliban forces in combat, and to secure a
series of major public events, culminating in the April 5 Afghan
presidential election.
Our military commanders emphasized that while these gains reflect the
growing confidence of the Afghan security forces in their ability to
provide security to the Afghan people, the challenge ahead is to put in
place the final pieces needed to make the progress of the last decade
sustainable. This includes logistics, maintenance, airlift, and
building the institutions of the Afghan Army and police. Fundamental to
any long-term effort on our part in Afghanistan will be the signing of
the Bilateral Security Agreement as soon as possible with a new Afghan
president. While President Karzai remains unreliable and his rhetoric
offensive, all the major Afghan presidential candidates, including the
two winners of the first round, support what we have done so far and
look forward to signing the BSA promptly if elected.
In addition to meeting with the three leading presidential
candidates, I met with Afghan government officials and with several
groups of representatives of Afghan civil society. The Afghans I met
with came from different backgrounds and spoke with different voices,
but they shared a common message of pride in the achievement of their
country as it has rebuilt and recovered from the devastation of decades
of civil war and Taliban rule. They pointed to the revival of
Afghanistan's education and health systems, the dramatic improvement in
the role of women in the country, and the new life that the last 10
years have brought to the country's economy.
They also spoke of their frustration with the exceedingly negative
picture of events in Afghanistan depicted in the U.S. press. A leading
national paper writes about a ``deepening resentment'' of the American
presence and a ``growing alienation'' between Afghanistan and the
United States. But the Afghans I met and large majorities of Afghans,
according to public opinion polls, are grateful for the sacrifices we
have made on their behalf and are convinced they can continue to
transform their country with our continued support. Their polls show
that 64 percent of the Afgan people believe there has been significant
progress in security. U.S. polls show the opposite, the product of an
unbalanced, negative view in our media.
The Afghans I met spoke with pride of the election they held on April
5, in which 7 million Afghans braved threats and violence to get to the
polls, voting at a higher rate than we achieve in our own elections.
According to preliminary counts, more than 35 percent of the voters
were women. This record vote was the culmination of a campaign in which
the leading candidates held huge rallies, attended by tens of thousands
of Afghans all over the country--including in areas that much of our
press reports are controlled by the Taliban. All of the security for
these events, and for the vote itself, was provided by Afghan forces.
And every Afghan I spoke with said that he--or she--feels more secure
today than a few years ago, in part because Afghan forces are providing
security in Afghan cities and towns.
Although the vote was divided among a number of candidates and a run-
off between Dr. Abdullah and Dr. Ghani will occur, Afghans say the act
of voting itself sent a message that Afghans reject the Taliban and
what it stands for. Our intelligence sources indicate that the Taliban
leadership is concerned by its inability to disrupt the election and
prevent Afghans from getting to the polls.
So, far from what we may read in much of our press, the Afghan people
conveyed to me their optimism regarding their country's significant
progress, their desire for democracy, and their gratitude for the
assistance of the United States over the past decade.
In Ukraine, I met with Acting President Turchinov, Prime Minister
Yatsenyuk, Defense Minister Koval, National Security and Defense
Council Head Parubiy, and numerous other government officials,
activists, and participants in the political process. Ukrainians faced
down the heavily-armed security forces of a corrupt, repressive regime
on the Maidan--their Independence Square--while they themselves armed
with little more than rocks, tires, and sandbags. Now they face an even
greater challenge in the form of tens of thousands of Russian troops
massed on their borders. Already, the Russians have annexed Crimea and
Russian Special Operations forces have organized sympathizers to occupy
buildings in a number of Eastern Ukrainian cities and towns in an
effort to disrupt and destabilize the government, make an election on
May 25 difficult to organize, and establish a basis for Russian
occupation or a Russian-oriented breakaway State.
In the face of these challenges, the Ukrainians I met expressed
gratitude for the solidarity and support our country has shown through
the dark days of the Yanukovich regime and into the challenges they
face today. They expressed their support for our values and their
strong desire to be a part of the democratic West, rather than the
authoritarian sphere of Putin's Russia and its allies. And they asked
for our support in their effort to stabilize their country, fend off
the Russian challenge, and hold free and fair elections as scheduled.
[[Page S2605]]
The Ukrainian people earned our support when they put their lives on
the line at the Maidan and turned to face the Russian threat with both
toughness and restraint. We should stand with the Ukrainian government
and the Ukrainian people because they share our democratic values, and
because Russia's effort to dismember their country through the threat
of force, if allowed to succeed, could undermine decades of stability
and a peaceful, democratic, and united Europe.
Ukrainians understand there will not be American ``boots on the
ground'' in their country. But there are a number of important steps we
can take to support the Ukrainians in their struggle.
First, we must expedite the aid we have already promised them--
including both financial assistance and nonlethal military equipment--
to make sure it arrives as quickly as possible.
Second, we should provide additional support, including body armor
and fuel, that the Ukrainians need to protect themselves. We should
provide the Ukrainians with firearms and ammunition if they need them--
but it appears that at this point they do not.
Third, we should make more robust use of the powers established in
Executive order 13661, which authorizes sanctions against the Russian
financial, energy, metals, mining, engineering, and defense sectors, to
ensure that the Putin regime pays a heavy price for its illegal
actions. President Obama's action to sanction more wealthy individuals
in Putin's circle, as well as businesses they own, is a wise one, but
we can do more.
Fourth, we should ensure that Russian banks are subject to the
significant tax penalties imposed on noncompliant banks by the Foreign
Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, the antitax evasion law set to
take effect in July. Russian banks and financial institutions that fail
to register with the Internal Revenue Service and obtain the required
identification number by July 1 of this year will be noncompliant with
FATCA and become subject to a 30-percent withholding tax on any U.S.
investment earnings. We should not negotiate with either Russia or
certain Russian banks on measures to provide relief from FATCA's
sanctions until Russia honors its diplomatic commitments and takes
steps to diffuse tensions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, including by
withdrawing Russian troops from the border region.
Finally, we should use the existing authorities to take on Russia's
manipulation of energy prices and supplies which it has used to coerce
not only Ukraine but also many of its neighbors. To be most effective,
these actions should be taken in close coordination with our friends
and allies in Europe, many of whom are directly affected by Russia's
abuses and threatened by its actions. We must take concrete steps
toward substituting energy from other sources for the countries that
would be impacted by a reduction of Russian energy. We must actively
become involved in energy development, diversification, and
conservation, even if it means paying higher prices for fuel, to break
Russia's iron grip on this market, and to prevent future acts of
attempted political extortion by Russia from being effective.
The people of Ukraine are proud of their fight for freedom at the
Maidan, as are the people of Afghanistan of the courage they showed,
when they voted in record numbers to reject the Taliban in their April
5 election. Both countries are struggling for values that we, as a
Nation, have always shared. They both deserve our support, and we
should continue to give it to them.
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