[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             SMART: MORE SECURITY AT A FRACTION OF THE COST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, the violence rages on in Afghanistan. 
Earlier this week, suicide bombers struck in three different cities, in 
each case targeting Shiite worshipers who are observing a religious 
holiday.
  The death toll is at least 63, according to a news report; and a 
Pakistani extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. 
One eyewitness told The New York Times: ``We saw 30 or 40 people on the 
ground missing arms or legs.'' Another said the Kabul blast was timed 
to wreak the maximum havoc, as the bomber detonated at the moment that 
the crowd was largest, when one group was going into a mosque and 
another was exiting.
  In the 10 years of this war, it's the first attack specifically 
against Shiites, adding a sectarian angle and religious tension that 
hadn't previously been prevalent in the Afghanistan conflict.
  Mr. Speaker, how can we call our occupation of Afghanistan a success 
when, after 10 years of attacks like this and making a young woman like 
BiBi who was talked about on the other side of the aisle earlier this 
morning, make her victimization and her terrorization commonplace. When 
this is commonplace, we cannot be having success in Afghanistan.
  The truth is our continued military presence is aggravating the 
violence, not containing it, and certainly not stopping it. I'm not 
saying that Afghanistan will be magically transformed when the last of 
our troops leaves; but our best hope for peace, for security and 
stability there is a swift end to this war.
  But here's another important thing, Mr. Speaker. If we do this right 
and have an end to the war that is meaningful, it would mean the 
beginning of an even more robust engagement with Afghanistan, an 
engagement based on the principles of SMART Security, in other words, a 
peaceful partnership based on mutual respect, assistance to 
strengthening Afghanistan's democratic infrastructure, not with 
military force, but with civilian support.
  SMART Security would empower the Afghan people investing in their 
hopes and dreams, instead of bringing further violence to their 
country. Military redeployment out of Afghanistan can't and won't mean 
a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan.
  So I hope that every single one of my colleagues who has eagerly 
rubber-stamped war spending year after year, even while complaining 
about the United States budget deficits, will show the same enthusiasm 
and the same support for a humanitarian surge in Afghanistan.
  I have to shake my head, Mr. Speaker, every time I hear someone say 
we can't afford such generous foreign aid. Talk about penny wise and 
pound foolish. Last fiscal year we spent roughly $2.5 billion on 
development assistance in Afghanistan. Mr. Speaker, we go through that 
much war spending in Afghanistan every single week. The bottom line is 
that smart investments provide more security at a fraction of the cost, 
pennies on the dollar compared to waging war.
  Allowing extreme poverty and widespread unemployment to prevail 
throughout Afghanistan imperils our national security as much as 
anything else. Where there's hopelessness, that's where insurgents get 
a foothold. Nothing breeds terrorism like hardship, deprivation, and 
despair.

                              {time}  1100

  Mr. Speaker, because it's the right thing to do and because it's the 
best way to protect America, let's bring our troops home and make the 
transition to SMART Security. And let's do it now.

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