[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22708-22709]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           AFGHAN ASSESSMENT

  (Mr. COFFMAN of Colorado asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COFFMAN of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, in 2007, the Commander in 
Chief, President George W. Bush, relied on his military commander on 
the ground to give him an assessment as to what it would take to turn 
around what was then a very bad situation in Iraq. General Petraeus 
made his case before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, 
and he was given the resources that he requested. The

[[Page 22709]]

surge in Iraq provided the necessary level of security that ultimately 
allowed the political process there to move forward.
  Similarly, General Stanley McChrystal has been charged by the 
Commander in Chief, President Barack Obama, to give an assessment of 
what it will take to win in Afghanistan and achieve the objectives that 
the President had committed to earlier this year.
  I believe General McChrystal's report was politically sanitized and 
General McChrystal needs to appear before the House and Senate Armed 
Services Committees to give an honest assessment of what is going on in 
Afghanistan.

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