[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17691-17692]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BRING OUR TROOPS HOME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much.
  I again will keep coming to the floor twice a week when we're in 
session to talk about bringing our troops out of Afghanistan. Bin Laden 
is dead, and we need to start thinking about, as the lady said before 
me, let's think about what America needs and not what Afghanistan 
needs. And that brings me to this point of the talk I want to give 
today, Mr. Speaker.
  On February 16, 2011, then-Secretary of Defense Gates testified 
before the House Armed Services Committee, which I serve on, and I'd 
like to read his comments:
  ``By the end of this calendar year, we expect less than 100,000 
troops to be deployed in both of the major post-9/11 combat theaters, 
virtually all of those forces being in Afghanistan. That is why we 
believe that, beginning in fiscal year 2015''--and that's important, 
Mr. Speaker. ``That is why we believe that, beginning in fiscal year 
2015, the United States can, with minimal risk, begin reducing Army 
active duty end strength by 27,000 and the Marine Corps by somewhere 
between 15,000 and 20,000. These projections assume that the number of 
troops in Afghanistan would be significantly reduced by the end of 
2014, in accordance with the President's strategy.''
  Mr. Speaker, I read that because I read the same statement to the new 
Secretary of Defense, Mr. Panetta, whom I have great respect for, and I 
asked him, Do you have the authority to change those timelines? He said 
no, because this is what the President has agreed to.
  Well, Mr. President, I'm calling on you to reconsider. Because beside 
me is a poster, and beside that poster is a flag-draped coffin coming 
off of a plane at Dover. And the headlines in the Greensboro paper 
said, ``Get Out.'' It is time to bring our troops home. They've done 
everything they've been asked to do.
  And that reminds me, a few weeks ago, I went to Walter Reed at 
Bethesda--it's the new consolidated military hospital here in 
Washington--and I saw four marines from my district, Camp Lejeune. 
Three of the four had lost both legs. The one that had not lost both 
legs was a lance corporal who asked me, with his mom in the room, 
Congressman, why are we still in Afghanistan? And I looked into the 
young man's face and I said, I don't know why we're still there. You 
all have won many, many battles, and it's time to bring you home. And 
the only thing he said, Mr. Speaker, was, Thank you.
  That brings me to a letter that I received from a retired marine down 
in my district about a year ago. He said, ``I am writing this letter to 
express my concern over the current Afghanistan war. I am a retired 
marine officer with 31-plus years of active duty.''

[[Page 17692]]

  Let me go down in the letter because there is another point I want to 
make.
  ``Our senior military leaders in Afghanistan continue to say that we 
are making progress, but at what cost to our country? This war is 
costing the United States billions of dollars a month to wage and we 
still continue to get more young Americans killed. The Afghanistan war 
has no end state for us. I urge you to make contact with all the 
current and newly elected men and women in Congress and ask them to end 
this war and bring our young men and women home.''

                              {time}  1030

  ``If any of my comments will assist you in this effort, you are 
welcome to use them and my name.''
  Mr. Speaker, I don't know why we are--we've got this debt crisis 
facing our country, and yet we've got a corrupt leader in Afghanistan 
named Karzai that one day likes America, and the next day he hates 
America; and we send him $10 billion a month, and it's borrowed money 
from the Chinese.
  And yet we're going to say to the American people we're going to cut 
the programs for little children; we're going to cut the programs for 
senior citizens. But Mr. Karzai, you'll get your $10 billion.
  And that brings me toward the end of my comments, Mr. Speaker. I 
contacted a marine general who's been a very dear friend of mine for a 
number of years, and he sends me questions to ask in committees to the 
Secretary of Defense and others who might be testifying.
  But something that has always stuck with me is what he closes this 
email with--and I have many emails--``What do we say to the mother and 
father or the wife of the last marine killed to support a corrupt 
government and a corrupt leader in a war that cannot be won?''
  That is the question. And I hope the American people will call on 
Congress, both parties, to bring our troops home before 2014.
  Mr. Speaker, I close by asking God to please bless our men and women 
in uniform, 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've 
given a child dying for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. I ask God to 
bless the House and Senate that we will do what is right in the eyes of 
God for His people, and I ask God to give wisdom, strength, and courage 
to President Obama that he will do what is right in the eyes of God for 
His people.
  And three times I ask, God please, God please, God please continue to 
bless America.
  Let's bring our troops home.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived audience.

                          ____________________