[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 82 (Thursday, May 29, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H4913-H4914]
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. Mr. Speaker, I am on the floor today to express my 
disappointment that my colleagues and I were prevented from offering an 
amendment to the NDAA dealing with the constitutional responsibility of 
Congress to declare war.
  Like many Members of Congress, I had the opportunity to speak at 
events on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday on Memorial Day weekend. Every 
time I spoke, I mentioned my frustration that the McGovern-Jones 
amendment was not able to be brought to the floor for debate and a 
vote. However, I was pleased that Adam Schiff's amendment to repeal the 
Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was passed by Congress 
in 2001, was at least brought up for a debate. However, I was 
disappointed that the Schiff amendment was defeated, because no 
President should have the authority to send men and women to war 
without action from Congress.
  According to CRS, the AUMF has been invoked in 30 known instances by 
Presidents Bush and Obama for the purpose of deploying troops. This 
represents an abdication of our constitutional responsibility.
  Yesterday I had the honor of visiting Walter Reed National Military 
Medical Center. Mr. Speaker, I have beside me a poster of a triple 
amputee. This gentleman gave his arm and both legs for our country. 
Yesterday at Walter Reed, during my visit, I had the privilege of 
talking with several of our Nation's heroes who have lost limbs, double 
amputees and triple amputees.
  Mr. Speaker, those lost limbs as well as other injuries, both 
physical and mental, are why I had veterans approach me at Memorial Day 
events to say that they agree that Afghanistan is not worth the blood 
that has been shed there. Furthermore, they agreed with me that 
Afghanistan is not worth America continuing to borrow money from 
foreign nations, driving up further the debt of our Nation to fund 
President Karzai's corrupt government when we have a multitude of 
problems and needs right here in America.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to close my comments by quoting Pat 
Buchanan, and I believe this describes our situation in Afghanistan: 
``Is it not a symptom of senility to be borrowing from the world so 
that we can defend the world?'' I am going to repeat that one more 
time. ``Is it not a symptom of senility to be borrowing from the world 
so that we can defend the world?''
  Mr. Speaker, we are a debtor nation. We can't even pay our bills 
without going into the international markets and borrowing money to pay 
last year's bills. It is time that this Congress understands that we 
need to come back to America and rebuild America. We need to be smart 
with our foreign policy. We need to be smart with our men and women in 
uniform.
  And as I look at this poster one more time, Mr. Speaker, when I saw 
that 23-year-old young man from Camp Lejeune, which is in my district, 
yesterday and his father, who is probably about 50 or 51, and the young 
man has both legs gone and an arm, I looked in the eyes of the father, 
and what I saw was pain; what I saw was worry; what I saw was sorrow.

[[Page H4914]]

  We in this Congress need to follow our constitutional responsibility 
and never send our young men and women to war unless we debate it and 
we declare war on the floor of the House.

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