[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8547-8548]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     THANKING 26 REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED FOR McGOVERN-JONES AMENDMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, like most of my colleagues in the House, on 
Memorial Day I had the privilege to speak to two different groups down 
in the Third District of North Carolina, which I represent. One of the 
events comes to mind down in Beaufort, North Carolina. There were well 
over 150 people there--most of them obviously were veterans or family 
of veterans, and a couple of families whose loved ones didn't come home 
from previous wars.
  That brings me to the point that last week Jim McGovern and I offered 
an amendment to create a formula to

[[Page 8548]]

bring our troops home from Afghanistan, and I want to thank the 26 
Republicans who voted for that amendment. We came within six votes of 
creating a formula for the President to bring our troops home before 
2015.
  Mr. Speaker, at these two events down in my district, I had veterans 
line up when I finished to come up to say, ``We agree with you on your 
position to bring our troops home from Afghanistan.'' And even at one 
event I got a very strong applause when I mentioned the McGovern-Jones 
amendment and how close we came to create a formula to bring our troops 
home.
  Mr. Speaker, they said to me, well, why did we go into Afghanistan? 
Bin Laden, he was responsible for 9/11, he's dead now. Al Qaeda, which 
had a large presence back in 2003, 2004 in Afghanistan, is now 
diminished. Now these are the veterans talking to me. I'm not a 
veteran. But my statement was, you're right. Our country is financially 
broke, we've spent over $8 billion, we can't pay our bills, and yet Mr. 
Karzai--who's corrupt to begin with, the leader of Afghanistan--we 
always seem to find $8 billion a month to send to him. It makes no 
sense.
  So Mr. McGovern and I and people on my side and his side, we're going 
to continue to work to create an atmosphere and environment to 
encourage President Obama not to wait until 2015.

                              {time}  1020

  That's exactly what Secretary Gates said to the Armed Services 
Committee, on which I serve: ``In February of 2015, we will start 
bringing home our troops.'' Well, then, Mr. Speaker, how many more will 
have to die, lose their legs and their arms in the next 4 years? It's 
only 2011, and we're talking about 2015?
  I can tell you our military has won the war many, many times. As you 
can see, this is a paper not even in my district, Greensboro, North 
Carolina, where Mr. Howard Coble is from. This is an editorial a few 
weeks ago and it says, ``Get Out,'' and there's a flag-draped coffin/
transfer case being carried off the plane by soldiers or airmen.
  So it is time that this Congress come together in a bipartisan way 
and bring our troops home.
  I see the families down at Camp Lejeune, which is in my district. I 
talk to them. I listen to them. They think they have done their job. 
They think it's time to come home.
  So, Mr. Speaker, as I do all the time on the floor of the House when 
I'm closing, I ask 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 ask God to please bless 
the House and Senate that we will do what is right in the eyes of God 
for His people in this great Nation. I will ask God to give wisdom, 
strength, and courage to Mr. Obama that he will do what is right in the 
eyes of God for this great Nation.
  And I will ask three times: God please, God please, God please 
continue to bless America.

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