[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 28965]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               WIDER WAR NOT A PATH TO PEACE AND SECURITY

  (Mr. DOGGETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I agree with so much of what President 
Obama said last night, but not so much what he would do. The path to 
peace and security will not be found through a wider war. Troop 
escalation by 40 percent, then de-escalation, all within 18 months, is 
totally unrealistic. We have been fighting in Afghanistan on the 
installment plan: a few more troops, a few more months, and many more 
billions. 2011 will not mark the end of this war. It will just mark the 
beginning of the next installment in what is a deteriorating 8-year war 
whose elusive end is always just over the horizon.
  The better exit strategy is to have fewer troops. With some allies 
already preparing to depart as we expand, most of the blood spilt will 
remain American. We should honor the sacrifice of those courageously 
serving by putting fewer of them in harm's way. It shouldn't take 
100,000 Americans to defeat 100 al Qaeda. All this effort props up a 
corrupt Karzai government that just stole over a million votes. 
Afghanistan can consume as many lives and as many dollars as we're 
willing to expend there, and leave our families no safer.

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