[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13113-13114]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         NEW GENERAL, SAME WAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, after General Stanley McChrystal was

[[Page 13114]]

relieved of his command last month and replaced by General David 
Petraeus, we read a lot of headlines that said things like this: 
``Generals Change, But Afghan Doesn't.'' ``Afghan Policy Won't Change 
After Dismissal.''
  But that is precisely, Madam Speaker, the problem. All the chatter 
about General McChrystal's indiscretion and firing obscured the 
critical point. The problem isn't with the personnel or the leadership, 
but with the strategy and the policy. The problem isn't with the 
generals, but with the war itself.
  There's a bit of a rearranging-of-the-deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic 
quality to all of this. No matter what the captains say and no matter 
who captains the ship, as long as we continue to prosecute this failed 
war, as long as we keep sending Americans to die on a mission that's 
doing nothing to defeat terrorists or stabilize Afghanistan, then we 
are headed straight for that iceberg.
  The more troops we deploy, the more violent Afghanistan becomes and 
the more Taliban grows its ranks. Unless General Petraeus is prepared 
to change that, then this change at the top doesn't amount to very 
much.
  If General Petraeus' appointment leads to any change at all, it may 
not be the kind of change we should be enthusiastic about. In his 
confirmation hearing, General Petraeus refused to take ownership of the 
July 2011 troop withdrawal deadline, stating very clearly that he did 
not recommend such a date to the President, nor did anyone else in 
uniform. And he once again equivocated about July 2011, calling it the 
beginning of a process, which sounds an awful lot like a diplomatic way 
to say he doesn't believe in it and will ask the President to extend 
it.
  He also added in his testimony, and I quote him, he said, ``The 
commitment to Afghanistan must be an enduring one.'' And on that point, 
Madam Speaker, I couldn't agree with the general more.

                              {time}  1510

  But an enduring commitment doesn't have to be a military commitment. 
We need an enduring civilian commitment, a smart security approach that 
invests in Afghanistan infrastructure, bolsters Afghan education, 
fights Afghan poverty, invigorates Afghan democracy, and much more. But 
we can do it without combat troops occupying the country, without the 
military footprint that has earned us more enemies than friends.
  Madam Speaker, eight Americans were killed during a 24-hour period in 
Afghanistan early this week. We've had 35 fatalities already in July, 
putting it on track to be the deadliest month of the entire war. We are 
losing our people, we are losing our money, we are losing our 
credibility without advancing our goals. That has to end. It's time to 
bring our troops home.

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