[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 2011

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, ten years ago today the United States 
pursued the perpetrators of 9/11 into the mountains of Afghanistan. Our 
original mission--which I supported--was to bring justice to members of 
al Qaeda who planned and executed one of the largest mass murders in 
history and the Taliban who enabled al Qaeda.
  Members of the U.S. military have done everything that has been asked 
of them. They have fought heroically, and have selflessly served their 
country.
  But, thanks to strategic and diplomatic missteps, a disastrous and 
unnecessary war in Iraq that distracted the U.S. from accomplishing our 
original mission, and the pursuit of failed policies, we have lost our 
way in Afghanistan.
  The war in Afghanistan has cost the United States greatly in lives 
and taxpayer dollars. We have lost more than 1,700 American troops in 
Afghanistan, with this past August being the deadliest month. Tens of 
thousands of Americans have been injured, maimed or made permanently 
disabled. Meanwhile, we continue to hemorrhage taxpayer dollars trying 
to sustain an unsustainable war. To date, the U.S. has spent $454 
billion--nearly half a trillion dollars--in Afghanistan.
  As we make drastic cuts in infrastructure, education, social 
services, and federal programs here at home, we are spending tens of 
billions of dollars per year to build critical infrastructure in 
Afghanistan, investing in roads and bridges in Afghanistan, and 
training Afghan troops and law enforcement officers.
  That's wrong. We should use that money to hire teachers here at home, 
modernize our schools, repave our crumbling roads, rebuild our failing 
bridges, put sheriffs back on the roads and police back on the street.
  It is long past time to bring this ten year war--the longest in the 
history of the United States--to a responsible end. I will continue to 
do everything I can in Congress to bring our troops home and to 
reinvest scarce federal resources in rebuilding our own country, rather 
than nation building in a failed state half a world away.