[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank President Obama for 
bringing all of our troops home from Iraq by the end of this year. This 
was an unnecessary war that cost over $850 billion, in which over 4,400 
Americans were killed and over 33,000 wounded. It is my hope that 
future Congresses will not accept misinformation from an administration 
as justification for sending our troops overseas to engage in combat.
  I am reminded of a quote from Rudyard Kipling's ``Epitaphs of War'': 
``If they ask you why we died, tell them it is because our fathers 
lied.'' I hope this lesson stays with the future leaders of this 
country and they do everything they can to keep our young men and women 
from going to war unless it is absolutely justified.
  Before the district work period, I went to the new Walter Reed 
facility in Bethesda. I saw five marines, four of whom had lost both 
legs. A young lance corporal looked at me and asked, ``Why are we still 
in Afghanistan?'' I had to stand there, with his mother in the hospital 
room, and say, ``I don't know.''
  My hope now is that this administration will bring our troops home 
before 2015. That is the timetable that Mr. Obama has agreed to. Just 
this weekend, President Karzai said, ``If fighting starts between 
Pakistan and the United States, we are beside Pakistan. If Pakistan is 
attacked and the people of Pakistan need Afghanistan's help, 
Afghanistan will be there with our friends in Pakistan.''
  I don't know how much more America has to take from a corrupt leader 
like Karzai. Bin Laden is dead. That was the whole purpose in going to 
Afghanistan. Al Qaeda has dispersed all around the world, and we are 
spending $10 billion a month in Afghanistan to prop up a corrupt 
leader, $10 billion that we could be spending here in America to help 
our children and our senior citizens. I hope that this Congress will 
come together and join those of us in both parties who say that victory 
should be declared because bin Laden is dead.
  Mr. Speaker, I bring with me to the floor a picture of a triple 
amputee, a young soldier and his lovely wife looking at an apartment 
and thinking as to how they're going to adjust their life. Both legs 
were amputated and his arm was amputated.
  It is time for the American people to speak out to Congress and say, 
``Bring our troops home'' because they have done everything that they 
could do and they've done it so very well.
  Mr. Speaker, I will close by asking 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. I will 
ask God to bless the House and Senate, that we will do what is right in 
the eyes of God for His people here in America, and I will ask God to 
give wisdom, strength, and courage to President Obama that he will do 
what is right in the eyes of God for God's people here in America. And 
I will close three times by saying, God please, God please, God please 
continue to bless America.

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