[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13588]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I have a poster beside me of a handsome 
couple. It's Marine Sergeant Tom Bagosy and his wife, Katie. I would 
like to read from an article:
  ``Marine Sgt. Tom Bagosy stepped out of his black GMC Sierra pickup 
and onto the gray speckled pavement of McHugh Boulevard, a busy 
thoroughfare in the heart of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He held a 
pistol in his right hand. The military police car that had pulled him 
over idled on the shoulder a safe distance behind him. The midday 
traffic stopped. Bagosy stood for a moment on the warm pavement under a 
cloudless May sky. Then he raised the pistol, pointed it to the right 
side of his throat just below his jaw, and pulled the trigger. The 
bullet sliced through his jugular vain, traveled through his skull, and 
exited near the top left side of his head. He crumpled down in the 
road. Even if the bullet had failed to rip through his brain, shooting 
through the jugular was solid insurance. He would have bled out in 
minutes anyway.
  ``Bagosy, 25, who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, had become 
another statistic in the war-fatigued military and its steadily 
escalating suicide rate. Last year, 52 marines committed suicide.''
  Mr. Speaker, I bring this to the floor because I don't know what 
we're trying to accomplish in Afghanistan. The experts say they can 
identify about 50 al Qaeda. Yes, we know al Qaeda is in other parts of 
Afghanistan, of the 50, then Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other 
countries. And yet Tom Bagosy is like so many in our military who are 
willing to go time after time, time after time. But they also are human 
beings that break down as well as get tired. And the families--Katie is 
now the mother to two children without her husband, Tom.
  Mr. Speaker, the tragedy of war goes on and on and on, and yet we 
have no endpoint in Afghanistan. We just keep sending the troops back 
and back and back and back. Just recently we had a debate on the floor 
of the House and we tried to debate what is the endpoint to the 
strategy. I'm not a military man, Mr. Speaker, but I've talked to many, 
all ranks, and I've been told if you don't have an endpoint to a 
strategy, you have no strategy.
  I hope Mr. Obama will keep his word and start in June of 2011 to 
downsize the military in Afghanistan because, Mr. Speaker, it breaks my 
heart to stand on the floor and to show a beautiful young couple, and 
yet the husband was worn out and tired. In fact, the title of the 
article says, ``A predictable suicide at Camp Lejeune: A doctor warned 
that mental health care for violent, disturbed marines was inadequate. 
Sgt. Tom Bagosy proved it.''
  Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of representing Camp Lejeune and 
Cherry Point and Seymour Johnson Air Force base, and what I would like 
to continue to say before I close is we thank you in the military and 
your families. You have done a magnificent job for this country. But 
those of us who make policy, Mr. Speaker, we need to understand and 
develop and demand an endpoint to the strategy because it's not fair 
and it's not right to wear out our military and its equipment.
  So, Mr. Speaker, as I do and have many times, I will close this way: 
I ask God to please bless our men and women in uniform. I ask God to 
please bless the families of our men and women in uniform. I ask God in 
his loving arms to hold the families who have given a child dying for 
freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. And I will ask God to please bless the 
House and Senate, that we will do what is right in the eyes of God for 
this country, including our military. And I will ask God to please 
bless the President of the United States, Mr. Obama; give him wisdom 
and strength to do what is right in the eyes of God for his people. And 
three times I will ask, God, please, God, please, God, please continue 
to bless America.

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