[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 91 (Tuesday, May 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3387-S3388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Afghanistan

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, when I listened to the speech by Senator 
McConnell, the Republican leader, about Afghanistan, it transported me 
back in history to October of 2002, when I was a U.S. Senator 
representing the State of Illinois, just days away from a reelection 
campaign, and we faced a historic vote here in the U.S. Senate. The 
vote was whether or not we would invade Iraq; whether the United States 
would give the President the authority to send American forces to Iraq. 
There were 23 votes against that invasion. I was 1 of them, 22 
Democrats and 1 Republican.
  I can remember that night so well. It was late, past midnight, when 
the vote was finally taken. But we had previously taken another vote, 
and although I had voted against the invasion of Iraq, I saw the 
invasion of Afghanistan as a different story. We believed that Osama 
bin Laden and al-Qaida, responsible for 9/11, were in Afghanistan. And 
the story was--the story line, and I bought it completely--if we don't 
tell people like Osama bin Laden that there is a price to pay for 
attacking America and killing 3,000 innocent people, who are we, and 
who will be the next attacker?
  So I voted. I voted for the invasion of Afghanistan and believed that 
was the right thing to do at that moment in history. That vote passed 
unanimously here in the Senate. There was only one dissenting vote in 
the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California. 
Virtually everyone else--everyone else, both political parties--voted 
for the invasion of Afghanistan.
  I will tell you, there was not a single Senator or Congressman who 
would have stood up that evening on that vote and announced ``I am 
prepared to vote for the longest war in American history,'' because 
that is what we ended up voting for.
  It was our belief that if we came into Afghanistan, we could stop 
using this country as a haven for terrorism and we could help escort 
them into the 21st century.
  Well, after 20 years, after thousands of Americans gave their lives 
and thousands more were critically injured, after the spending of 
trillions of dollars in Afghanistan, we learned a bitter lesson. Our 
willingness was not enough. The people in Afghanistan have to be 
prepared to embrace change for it to happen.
  We had to create an army in Afghanistan, a security force. It 
virtually didn't exist. The warlords had their military, and they were 
for sale, usually, to the highest bidder. And we were trying to create 
a national security force. We were trying to create a nation, which was 
quite a challenge.
  I am not going to dwell on what happened, the bitter disappointments. 
But when I hear Senators come to the floor saying, ``Isn't it a shame 
that we are leaving Afghanistan? They are going to descend into chaos 
and many, many problems,'' my question to them is: So what would you 
have us do? Continue

[[Page S3388]]

with the troops risking their lives in Afghanistan for another 20 
years, for another trillion dollars?
  Not me. I believe we have reached a point where we have to do 
everything we can to help Afghanistan really progress into the 21st 
century. Yes, I feel a personal obligation to the men and women who 
risked their lives for our troops.
  For those who are opposed to or unaccepting of the notion of refugees 
coming to the United States, for goodness' sake, let us have the 
character to stand behind those Afghan men and women who risked their 
lives for our soldiers and who are now probably marked by the Taliban 
for death themselves. Yes, I would open our doors to them. They gave 
their lives for our men and women, and we should never forget it. I 
hope my friends on the other side of the aisle who have strong feelings 
about immigration would at least realize that these individuals are 
critically important to our role in history and our message to the rest 
of the world when we seek their assistance.