[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14568]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       THE NEW WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

  (Ms. TSONGAS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. TSONGAS. Mr. Speaker, following September 11, our Armed Forces 
made tremendous strides in Afghanistan, but our resources were diverted 
to fight the war in Iraq. The circumstances now present in Afghanistan 
and the region are markedly different than those that characterized our 
original entry in 2001. As a result, the President's request for 
supplemental funding is not a reallocation of resources. It is support 
for a new and different war and must be assessed as such.
  I have repeatedly asked in various venues how the President's new 
strategy would bring regional stability, the length of time, and troop 
levels that such a commitment requires and what our exit strategy would 
be. The best answer I have received thus far was from Admiral Mullen. 
He said, ``I think it's going to be a while. At what level of combat, 
what level of troops, that's difficult to predict right now.''
  A ``yes'' vote on the supplemental is fundamentally an acceptance of 
an open-ended military commitment to Afghanistan. That is not something 
I can support.

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