[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 23]
[House]
[Page 31917]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             AMERICA IN AFGHANISTAN: QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOLT. Madam Speaker, today Members received another classified 
briefing on our policy in Afghanistan, a briefing that raised a number 
of questions that need answers before our country commits further 
troops and resources to that conflict. These are not loaded questions 
or simply rhetorical, they are real questions--and just some of the 
real questions--that people in central New Jersey are asking.
  Would this proposed troop increase bring us closer to capturing or 
killing those responsible for the 9/11 attacks? If the al Qaeda remnant 
Americans are seeking to capture or kill is on the Pakistani side of 
the border, or in Yemen or East Africa, how will sending more troops 
to, say, southern Helmand Province in Afghanistan help us to get those 
terrorists who attacked us on September 11 or might attack us in the 
future? Should we send troops to where al Qaeda isn't? Should we expand 
our aerial strikes? Would an escalation in air attacks do more harm 
than good? Is our intelligence apparatus structured and capable of 
giving our military and political leaders the intelligence they need to 
wage this war? Given our lack of foreign language capabilities, can we 
really know what's going on in the towns and farms and villages? Does 
the deterioration in the military and political situation in recent 
years in Afghanistan result from actions Americans have taken or failed 
to take? If so, how do we avoid those problems in a surged military 
action? What constitutes victory or success in this conflict? What is 
it that we hope to leave behind once we exit Afghanistan? What can we 
reasonably hope to leave behind?
  Is the Afghan Government a viable partner? Is it viewed as legitimate 
by the Afghan people? Does the government and do the people have the 
same dedication to human rights, education and public welfare that we 
do? If so, how will our military troops bring improvements in those 
areas? Do the Afghan people have the same revulsion to official 
corruption that Americans do? Can the Afghan security forces be 
expanded as quickly as claimed? Is President Karzai correct that he 
needs extensive military U.S. security assistance for 15 or 20 more 
years? Will such assistance require the use of many private security 
contractors? If so, what will such a reliance on contractors cost the 
American taxpayer? If contractors are employed extensively in 
Afghanistan, do the State and Defense Departments have sufficient 
oversight mechanisms to ensure those contractors operate more legally 
and ethically than they have in, for example, Iraq? What lessons from 
Afghanistan's history can we learn about the population's reaction to 
the long-term presence of foreign troops on their soil? Could 
Afghanistan degenerate into a civil war along ethnic and religious 
lines, as happened in Iraq?
  Is the Government of Pakistan a viable partner? Are they serious 
about helping us? Are elements of their military and security services 
still supporting the Afghan Taliban who are attacking our troops? What 
if President Zadari is overthrown, as has happened with previous 
leaders?
  Will our allies actually provide the troops the President is 
requesting? And if they commit 10,000 troops and we have 90,000 troops, 
will it be seen as an international effort or an American war? If 
European countries' troop casualties rise sharply next year, will those 
nations pull out of Afghanistan and leave our troops to bear the future 
burden?
  Should we pay for the war openly and up front? Or should we commit 
troops and consider how to pay later? How would we pay for such an 
escalation, including the long-term costs of caring for our wounded 
veterans? Is the Department of Veterans Affairs hiring enough 
psychological counselors to treat the number of veterans who need 
counseling and treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder? Do we even 
know how to treat PTSD of veterans who have endured two, three or more 
combat tours? What should we make of the fact that the estimated $100 
billion we'll spend on the war each year is equal to the cost of the 
health reform bill each year that we are debating now?
  Are there alternatives to the President's approach that Congress and 
the Nation should explore? What is truly the best way to secure our 
country against future terrorist attacks? Are we putting the right 
emphasis on a military approach to counterterrorism policy? When 
extremists can transmit their ideology and recruit terrorists over the 
Internet and via extremist madrassas and youth groups, are we fighting 
on the right battlefield in Afghanistan? Are we doing enough at home to 
prevent future tragedies like the one that occurred at Fort Hood?
  Fulfilling our constitutional obligations regarding matters of war 
and peace requires that Congress get answers to these questions and 
many more, and help the American people get these answers.

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