[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12018-12019]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   NO ILLUSIONS: A CLEAR-EYED SMART SECURITY APPROACH IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, last week, General David Petraeus 
relinquished control of the Afghanistan command. He did this as he 
prepares to take over as CIA Director this fall.
  We are all grateful to General Petraeus for 37 years of honorable and 
distinguished service, but the fact remains that the fundamental 
realities in Afghanistan haven't changed. The New York Times put it 
plainly, noting that the general is ``leaving behind a country racked 
by deep political instability, whose fledgling security forces are 
fighting a weakened but deadly insurgency that kills coalition troops 
and Afghan civilians and officials nearly every day.''
  That's a pretty damning assessment, Mr. Speaker, and it's accurate.
  In recent weeks, two of President Karzai's most powerful allies, 
including his brother, have been gunned down by the Taliban, and 
ordinary Afghan citizens are caught in the line of fire as never, never 
before. The U.N. recently reported that more Afghan civilians were 
killed in the first half of 2011 than in any other 6-month period since 
the war began. Some of these casualties are the accidental result of 
errant attacks and night raids by U.S. and NATO forces, but the 
overwhelming majority of civilian deaths came at the hands of 
insurgents who were often using suicide bombers.
  There were nearly 1,500 civilian deaths between January and June, but 
according to the U.N., that might be a low estimate given that it 
doesn't include killings in northern Afghanistan in the last few 
months, because the U.N. closed its office in that region after it was 
attacked by a mob that killed several staffers.
  It is clear, Mr. Speaker, that after nearly a decade of war we 
haven't been able to vanquish the enemy and bring stability and 
security to Afghanistan. If after 10 years we can't do more to subdue 
the insurgency, then clearly--clearly--we must be doing something 
wrong. Clearly, there must be a better approach.
  I've been pushing for that new approach for many years now. It's 
called SMART Security. It's based on the belief that sending 100,000 
troops to occupy a sovereign country is not the best way to win trust 
and to promote peace, which has proven to fan the flames of resentment, 
to give increased momentum to extremists and to put the lives of 
American troops and Afghan civilians in danger.
  What we need, Mr. Speaker, is an Afghanistan civilian surge as bold 
as the military surge that has gotten us further entangled in this 
failed war. That's what SMART Security is all about. Instead of sending 
troops, let's send humanitarian aid. Let's send our civilian experts 
who can help rebuild Afghan schools and hospitals, who can help--and I 
say ``help'' because we want the Afghan people to be doing this, but we 
can help where necessary--rebuild the political infrastructure and rule 
of law that will strengthen Afghan democracy, who can promote political 
reconciliation and peaceful conflict resolution.
  As he left Afghanistan, General Petraeus said, ``We should be clear-
eyed about the challenges ahead.'' His successor, General John Allen, 
said, ``There will be tough days ahead, and I have no illusions about 
the challenges we will face together.''
  But I say, Mr. Speaker, continuing with the current policy 
demonstrates that, in fact, we are not being clear-eyed at all, that we 
are gripped by dangerous illusions about what a military occupation can 
achieve. This strategy

[[Page 12019]]

has been given a chance to work--10 years. It hasn't worked. It's time 
for something new. It's time for SMART Security, and it's time to bring 
our troops home.

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