[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21670-21671]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

  (Mr. QUIGLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, today the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, Mike Mullen, told Congress that he needed more troops to succeed 
in Afghanistan. He's probably right, just like Army Chief of Staff Eric 
Shinseki was right when he said we needed more troops in Iraq.
  But just as we failed to ask the tough strategic questions about 
Iraq, it is my sincere belief that we are now failing to ask the tough 
strategic questions about Afghanistan.
  Colin Powell said, ``When we go to war, we should have a purpose our 
people understand and support.''
  Do we have that today in Afghanistan? Every time we send a young 
American over for a tour of duty, we are deciding to go to war over and 
over again. The question is, Does the American public understand and 
support that decision? Do we as a body understand and support the long-
term strategy behind the war in Afghanistan? Or has the people's House 
gone on autopilot, deciding to debate only numbers and not the bigger 
questions of why,

[[Page 21671]]

how, and when this Nation should go to war?

                          ____________________