[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12173-12174]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             APPRECIATION FOR THE WORDS OF PRESIDENT KARZAI

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to 
add my appreciation and applause for the words of President Karzai of 
Afghanistan. We had the great pleasure as members of the Afghanistan 
Caucus, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney) the Chair, and myself as 
cochair, along with other Members of Congress, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Wilson) to visit most recently in Afghanistan and to see the real 
examples of progress that have been made and particularly the 
provisional reconstruction teams of our military who are engaged in 
building clinics and schools, hospitals and homes.
  We do know that there is more work to be done. There is work to be 
done with the warlords and the militias. It

[[Page 12174]]

is imperative that we stay the course as it relates to the war on 
terror in Afghanistan and to focus on not having distractions that keep 
us from finishing our commitment there. It is not going to be easy to 
have unfettered elections, safe elections; and it will take the will of 
the people of Afghanistan as well as the will of this Nation.
  At the same time, I would hope that we would focus on other issues of 
concern as we work toward a free and independent and secure 
Afghanistan.

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