[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 589]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BRING OUR TROOPS HOME

  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 am on the floor again tonight, and I have 
said that I intend to be on the floor each and every night that I can 
be on the floor to talk about bringing our troops home from 
Afghanistan.
  I hope tomorrow night when the President gives the State of the 
Union, that he will stay to and keep his word when he said he will 
start bringing our troops home in July of 2011. The reason I am 
somewhat concerned, there have been leaders in both parties, primarily 
on the Senate side, who have said that they think that they need 4 more 
years in Afghanistan. Well, you know, that might be a dream, but that 
is all it is, a dream. You're not going to change history. History has 
spoken many, many times, from Alexander the Great to the English to the 
Russians, that Afghanistan is a vast country of many, many tribes, and 
they never have had a national government, and they will not under 
Karzai. He is corrupt. He is very corrupt.
  So I hope that the President will stick to his timetable of bringing 
our troops home beginning in July of this year, and that he will be not 
swayed by anyone who says just 4 more years. I say that for this 
reason: I am on the Armed Services Committee, and I remember a few 
years ago when they were telling us, these generals would come in--and 
I respect each and every one of them--and they would say to us: Well, 
we're making progress. We're training the Afghans to be policemen. 
We're training the Afghans to be soldiers.
  Well, we are 10 years later, and we are still training. How much more 
can you do? It is costing us $8 billion a month. And more important 
than the money is the lost lives and the broken bodies of our men and 
women in uniform.
  Recently I had the opportunity, the privilege, to go to Walter Reed 
in Bethesda. Mr. Speaker, for the first time before I walked into this 
young soldier's room, I was told out front by the major that escorted 
me that he has no body parts below his waist. They have all been blown 
away.
  Then I had an opportunity to see a marine sergeant during the same 
visit who had been to Afghanistan four times, and on the fourth tour, 
he had his left leg blown off. What in the world are we trying to do? 
Why don't we understand from history: nobody is going to ever conquer 
Afghanistan. So, therefore, I hope the President will stay to his word 
and start bringing our troops home.
  We are spending $8 billion a month in Afghanistan, and yet throughout 
America, including my district, the Third Congressional District of 
North Carolina, we can't even fix the roads. We can't even fix the 
schools because we are spending money we don't have that we are 
borrowing from the Japanese, the Chinese, UAE and other countries.
  It is time that this Congress speaks up and listens: 63 percent of 
the American people say it is time to get out of Afghanistan. So I hope 
that the President will speak tomorrow night about Afghanistan. I hope 
he will say that he intends to start bringing our troops home this 
year.
  Mr. Speaker, I have here photographs of marines from the Camp Lejeune 
area, which is in my district. They are young, anywhere from 19 to 38 
years of age, who have given their life for this country. And yet many 
times I wonder here in Congress why don't we bring up this issue of 
bringing our troops home from Afghanistan.
  So, Mr. Speaker, tonight I want to thank you for giving me this 
chance to speak. I want to thank those who are on the floor, I hope you 
join us, Ron Paul and myself and Jimmy Duncan on our side, who have 
been saying that it is time to bring our troops home. Let's join 
together in a bipartisan way and start talking about bringing our 
troops home.
  Mr. Speaker, before closing, as I do each and every night, as I think 
about the pain that I have seen at Walter Reed and Bethesda, I think 
about the families who are burying their loved ones now who have died 
in Afghanistan, that it is time to say to God, God please continue to 
bless our men and women in uniform and their families. God, in Your 
loving arms, hold the families who have given a child, dying for 
freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq.

                              {time}  1920

  God, please continue to bless the House and Senate that we will do 
what is right in Your eyes for Your people.
  God, give wisdom, strength, and courage to President Obama that he 
will do what is right in Your eyes for Your people.
  And three times I will say, God, please, God, please, God, please 
continue to bless America.

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