[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21450-21452]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       SUCCEEDING IN AFGHANISTAN

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, 8 years ago today, terrorists based in 
Afghanistan carried out the deadliest attacks on American soil since 
Pearl Harbor. It was on that horrifying September morning in 2001 that 
America's worst fears were realized. No longer was terrorism something 
that only happened on the other side of the globe. Instead, those 
terrorist killers had struck the very heart of America here at home.
  Long before 9/11, there were deadly warnings, warnings that for the 
most part went unheeded. For over two decades, al-Qaida and other 
terrorists attacked our Nation, from the marine barracks bombing in 
Beirut in October 1983 to the Pan Am 103 bombing in 1988, from the 
first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 to the Embassy bombings in 
1998, to the USS Cole attacks in 2000. While al-Qaida declared war 
against the United States a long time ago, it took the tragedy of 
September 11 and the loss of thousands of lives before America decided 
to fight back.
  Today, as we reflect on the anniversary of 9/11 and the lives lost 
that day, we can honor the victims and their families by finishing the 
job in Afghanistan and defeating the terrorists who are bent on death 
and destruction.
  I agree with the comments of my colleague, the Senator from Michigan, 
who said that we need to build the Afghan Army to 240,000. We need to 
build and strengthen the Afghan police. But we also must support 
President Obama's chosen general, GEN Stanley McChrystal, in his 
request for needed troops and resources.
  President Obama has called Afghanistan an ``international security 
challenge of the highest order.'' I agree. When the President stressed 
that ``the safety of people around the world is at stake,'' he did not 
overstate the importance of succeeding in Afghanistan.
  President Obama used even starker terms when he spoke to our veterans 
at this year's VFW convention and said:

       Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so 
     again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an 
     even larger safe haven from which al-Qaida would plot to kill 
     more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting, 
     this is fundamental to the defense of our people.

  I could not agree more. While the President has used this week to 
pitch health care reform, I hope after reflecting on the anniversary of 
the September 11 attacks, he will refocus his attention and that of the 
American people on achieving victory in Afghanistan.
  To repeat, terrorism is the premiere challenge of our time. If we 
fail to conquer this challenge, nothing else will matter much, not even 
health care reform. As Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence 
Committee, I can tell you that al-Qaida and other radical Islamic 
terrorists have not stopped trying to strike Americans at home and our 
allies around the world.
  It is critical that my own party, Republicans, support President 
Obama in the fight against terrorists. We Republicans must demonstrate 
that politics ends at the water's edge and strongly support the 
strategy the President has laid out with his generals for victory in 
Afghanistan.
  Let's avoid the politics we too often saw in Iraq, declaring defeat 
where our troops in theater were fighting for their lives and our 
freedom; undercutting our President while he tried to help rally allies 
to join us in the battle.
  For my Democratic colleagues, I hope they follow the stirring words 
of the leader of their party at the VFW

[[Page 21451]]

and do not give in to the pundits peddling pessimism. Do not give in to 
the leftwing that has prematurely declared defeat in Afghanistan, as 
they so readily declared in Iraq; much, I might add, to the grave 
concern of our troops in harm's way, which I heard firsthand by e-mail 
from my son in Fallujah.
  Many of the naysayers are saying that victory in Afghanistan is not 
possible. We hear the refrain over and over: It has been 8 years. Why 
have we not left? Unfortunately, our country has a history of 
abandoning Afghanistan.
  Earlier this week in an interview, Defense Secretary Robert Gates 
acknowledged what a serious strategic mistake our Nation made turning 
our backs on Afghanistan after Soviet forces were defeated there two 
decades ago. Sadly, under administrations of both parties America has 
repeatedly ignored the lessons of history, repeatedly turned our backs 
on Afghanistan. It is no wonder the people of Afghanistan doubt our 
commitment to their defense.
  The problems we face in Afghanistan today are in many ways more 
complex than those we faced on September 12, 2001. We know al-Qaida has 
found sanctuary in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The 
Taliban government is gone, but the Taliban insurgency has risen and 
has grown in strength. This insurgency has prevented the new Afghan 
Government from establishing its writ throughout Afghanistan and 
threatens Afghanistan's long-term stability.
  If not stopped, this insurgency could once again allow a terrorist 
safe haven, whether for al-Qaida or other terrorist groups, to flourish 
in Afghanistan. We cannot let that happen. President Obama's new 
strategy, being implemented by General McChrystal, is our best chance 
of success.
  Now, do not get me wrong. While we are on the right path to long-term 
victory in Afghanistan, the road will not be easy. In fact, it is going 
to get worse before it gets better. We have seen evidence of this 
already. The fighting has been tough in Afghanistan the last few 
months, and too many of our brave troops have been wounded or killed in 
action. Those recent casualties should not come as a surprise, however, 
to anyone who has been following events in Afghanistan. U.S. Marines 
recently began clearing rural areas in southern Afghanistan that have 
served as Taliban safe havens for years.
  Before these operations began, our military commanders very clearly 
warned Congress and the American people that taking southern 
Afghanistan back from the Taliban would be costly. As the father of a 
marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, I did not take this news 
lightly. But many of my colleagues in the Senate and I agreed then and 
agree now that defeating the militants is a job that must be done.
  Our brave marines will no doubt succeed in clearing these areas in 
southern Afghanistan of terrorists, the same terrorists who brazenly 
throw acid in the faces of young girls on their way to school and 
coldly murder mullahs who have the audacity to disagree with their 
brand of hatred. But even after this is accomplished, much work will 
still need to be done in a country recovering from decades of war.
  Key to our success is General McChrystal's recognition of the 
importance of building sustainable security in Afghanistan through the 
use of ``smart power,'' combining military power with economic 
development, education, and diplomatic strategies.
  While we need military forces to build security in the short term, 
sustaining long-term security requires smart power. Before Afghans can 
choose peace and the democratic process, they need enough food to eat 
and a stable community in which to live. That is exactly what ``smart 
power'' seeks to do. This same strategy is already proving successful 
in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province.
  During a visit to Afghanistan in 2006 with General Eikenberry, I 
heard from him and President Karzai of the need to improve and rebuild 
the agricultural sector in Afghanistan. I tried to do so through the 
creation of a land grant university consortium that would set up an 
agricultural extension service through USAID. Unfortunately, USAID 
lacked the capacity to implement this vision.
  So I turned to my friends, the soldiers and airmen in the Missouri 
Guard who, in their civilian lives, were farmers and possessed other 
agricultural expertise to empower the Afghans. For over a year, the 
Missouri National Guard's Agricultural Development Teams, ADTs, have 
been helping Afghans harvest high-value alternatives to opium poppies 
and build irrigation systems and wells for clean water.
  Decades of war in Afghanistan have left most of the country mired in 
18th century practices. These ADTs provide agricultural specialists to 
help the Afghans rebuild their agricultural know-how and literally sow 
the seeds of peace in Afghanistan. Thanks to the ADTs' dedication and 
hard work, poppy production in Nangarhar has been virtually eliminated, 
where it was the second most prolific producer of poppies before.
  The first of these teams started to work in Nangarhar in February of 
2008. The second rotation is underway. I just joined friends and family 
back in Missouri to celebrate the send-off of the third rotation of the 
ADTs. By showing a consistent commitment to the people in Nangarhar, 
these citizen soldiers have built relationships and trust at the local 
level, influencing hearts and minds to reject the deadly influence of 
the radical extremists.
  Like ``The Show Me State'' motto, Missourians have shown the way 
forward. Thanks to their leadership, 10 other States are now sending 
specialized Agricultural Development Teams to provinces throughout 
Afghanistan.
  These successes make it clear that we need to increase the investment 
in smart power strategies through these agricultural teams. Ten other 
State National Guards are now committed to the vital mission of 
building sustainable economies, protecting them with military force 
province by province. We need appropriate military protection in every 
province in Afghanistan. The Guard is uniquely suited to this mission. 
But we also need Federal military and economic efforts.
  In addition to smart power, General McChrystal also understands that 
a counterinsurgency strategy is key to success in Afghanistan. I have 
been disappointed to listen to the talking heads in Washington advocate 
recently for an alternative approach, a mere counterterrorism strategy.
  It is easy, of course, to play arm chair general from thousands of 
miles away. But these talking heads seem to have forgotten that a 
counterterrorism strategy alone failed in Iraq. Not surprisingly, it 
has failed so far in Afghanistan.
  Counterterrorism by remote control does not cut it. The so-called 
surgical strikes, whether by air or ground, increase civilian 
casualties and only allow insurgents, from the Taliban to the drug 
lords to al-Qaida, to filter back in once the attacks are over. This 
approach leaves the people in the country subject to retaliation if 
they do not cooperate with the terrorists, which, not surprisingly, 
they do.
  Conversely, the counterinsurgency strategy will ensure the violent 
insurgents are defeated and do not come back. I also agree with the 
administration that part of this strategy must allow some of the ``day 
fighters,'' those who are hard-core al-Qaida supporters or Taliban 
ideologues, to lay down their weapons and to return to peaceful lives.
  If we are getting the job done right, we will naturally lure 
desperate young men away from the false promises of extremism. A viable 
and appropriately resourced counterinsurgency strategy is not only 
essential for success in Afghanistan, it is pivotal in the future of 
Pakistan.
  Driving terrorist safe havens out of eastern and southern Afghanistan 
is crucial, but not if al-Qaida and Taliban militants continue to find 
sanctuary in the remote border regions of west Pakistan. The threat 
these transplanted terrorists pose has become even more real over the 
last 6 months as the world watched Taliban militants creep closer to 
Pakistani nuclear facilities.

[[Page 21452]]

  We must support the Pakistan Government and its newly aggressive 
military action to take out the terrorists threatening their country 
and Afghanistan.
  The horrors of nuclear-armed terrorists would be put at risk and put 
at risk freedom-loving people everywhere. This is not a risk we or the 
world can take. The stakes of turning our backs on this conflict could 
not be higher. America ignored the fact that Afghanistan became one 
giant camp for terrorists in the 1990s, and thousands of Americans died 
on 9/11 as a result. And thousands of our brave troops have died in 
defense of our Nation since then.
  We face a similar threat today, 8 years after 9/11. Al-Qaida has 
shifted their terrorist sanctuaries from Afghanistan to the Federally 
Administered Tribal Areas, FATA, of Pakistan. The Taliban, the same 
people who sheltered Osama bin Laden and defied U.S. demands to hand 
him over, now fight efforts by the international community to bring 
stability to Afghanistan.
  Our U.S. withdrawal, in whole or in part, from Afghanistan now would 
be a tacit yet unambiguous approval for the return of Taliban control 
over Afghanistan. In turn, this would lead to the establishment of safe 
havens for many of the world's most violent and feared terrorists. 
American abandonment of Afghanistan now could possibly hand over the 
keys to a nuclear-armed kingdom to violence-loving terrorists.
  I returned this past August from Denmark and Greece, two relatively 
small countries but steadfast allies in their resolve to support the 
NATO mission and stabilize Afghanistan. Declaring defeat in Afghanistan 
today would signal to our allies that Americans no longer have the 
resolve to defeat terrorists. Declaring defeat in Afghanistan today 
would signal to our allies that simply by waiting us out, violent 
extremists can triumph over the combined military and economic might of 
the international community. Finally, declaring defeat in Afghanistan 
today would signal to the families of those who died on September 11 
and the troops who have fought since then in the years since in service 
to their country that their loved ones died in vain. These are not 
signals our great Nation should ever send.
  Instead, we must declare unequivocally our courage, resolve, and 
patience to provide needed resources and more troops to allow the smart 
power strategy of General McChrystal to succeed. This alone is the 
signal America should send.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Florida is 
recognized.

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