[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10869]
[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. Madam Speaker, on the floor today I think America and all 
of us in Congress are certainly concerned about the debt ceiling issue 
and what we are going to do and how we are going to be able to resolve 
it. But like many of my colleagues on the Democratic side, I am here 
today to talk about the war in Afghanistan.
  Madam Speaker, I have beside me a really profound photograph of a 
wife in tears and a little girl sitting on her knee, who is too young 
to understand that her father, United States Army Sergeant Jeffrey 
Sherer, is laid under the flag that is now folded, being presented to 
the wife.
  This is the pain of war, and I do say to Ms. Woolsey, thank you very 
much for what you have done to try to wake up the Congress and the 
American people.
  Ten billion dollars a month going to Afghanistan. We can't even fix 
the bridges, we can't fix the roads, we are cutting children's 
programs, we are cutting senior programs. And yet Mr. Karzai, who is 
known as a corrupt leader of Afghanistan, is going to get his $10 
billion a month while these programs that we are going to cut are going 
to be denied $10 billion a month. It doesn't make any sense, Madam 
Speaker.
  That brings me to an article written by A.C. Snow. He is well-known 
in North Carolina, where I am from, for his writings in The News and 
Observer, which is a State paper in Raleigh, North Carolina. This past 
July 4th, his article was titled ``Time to Bring Them Home, Let Them 
Live.''
  ``Time to Bring Them Home, Let Them Live.''
  Let this little girl's father live. Obviously, he will not live. He's 
dead. But how about the next little girl or little boy, or the wife 
and, in some cases, the husband?
  Let me share with the House from A.C. Snow's writing, ``Time to Bring 
Them Home, Let Them Live'':
  ``It seems we never run out of wars. It is as if one small country 
after another sends out engraved invitations reading: `We're having a 
war. Please come.' And Uncle Sam goes, lugging borrowed billions and 
thousands of young men and women to sacrifice on the altar of so-called 
freedom or `nation building.'''
  Snow closes his comments by quoting lyrics from ``Les Miserables'': 
``He is young. He is only a boy. You can take, you can give, Let him 
be, Let him live. Bring him home, Bring him home.''
  Snow further writes, ``It's way past time to stop playing politics 
with the lives of America's youth. Bring them home. Let them live. Not 
just 30,000 of them. All of them.''
  Madam Speaker, I sit here day after day, in committees and on the 
floor of the House, listening to debate, sometimes being part of the 
debate. I just hope that the American people will understand that in 
this discussion at the White House with the leadership of the House and 
the leadership of the Senate, we could save $100 billion. That's what 
it costs per year to be in Afghanistan.
  Madam Speaker, I have Camp Lejeune Marine Base in my district. I have 
over 60,000 retired military. I listen to them. No, I did not serve, 
but I listen to those who are serving and those who did serve.
  And like my colleagues, I go to Walter Reed, I go to Bethesda. I see 
the broken bodies, the amputated legs, the paralyzed; and I have 
written over 10,300 letters to families like Sergeant Sherer's to say 
to the families, I regret that I voted to send our kids into Iraq. It 
was a lie that got us there, and we never should have gone.
  So I join my colleagues in both parties to do my part to say let's 
bring them home from Afghanistan. Let's bring them home before 2014 or 
2015.
  And, Madam Speaker, may God bless our men and women in uniform, and 
may God bless America.

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