[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1138]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 BRING OUR TROOPS HOME FROM AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I join my friend from California who just 
spoke, and my friend from Massachusetts who spoke before him, Mr. 
Garamendi and Mr. McGovern.
  I joined in that meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Davis. He is a very 
brave man. In fact, if any of my colleagues would like to read the 
article in The New York Times on Monday, the title is: ``In Afghan War, 
Officer Becomes a Whistle-Blower,'' with a subtitle of ``A Solo 
Campaign to Tell the Truth.'' And as my two friends who have just 
spoken said, the truth does matter. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 
spoke the truth, and it's time that we in Congress demand the truth on 
this war in Afghanistan.
  I think Colonel Davis is doing this country a tremendous favor by 
trying to say: Congress, ask the right questions. Stop listening to 
those who keep telling you that training the Afghan soldiers and the 
Afghan to be policemen is going well. I'm on the Armed Services 
Committee, and I've been hearing that for 10 years. You can teach a 
monkey to ride a bicycle sooner than 10 years. How many more young men 
and women have to give their legs and their arms?
  Last week, I had a Marine general in my office and a Navy admiral. 
After we talked about the issues impacting eastern North Carolina where 
we have three bases, we got into this war on Afghanistan. I was telling 
them that the broken bodies I've seen at Walter Reed and Bethesda--
which now have been consolidated to Walter Reed at Bethesda, and I'll 
be there next Tuesday--I was telling them about seeing four young men 
that have no body parts below their waist. They're living. They would 
have died in Vietnam.
  Medical technology has advanced to the point that a young man or 
young woman can live with half a body, nothing below their waist. The 
admiral told me of seeing a young man that he visited that has no arms 
or legs, no arms or legs and he's living. Uncle Sam, you've got a 
tremendous responsibility to take care of these heroes for the next 10, 
15, 20, 25, 30 years; and this Congress can't even balance the budget. 
No veteran from these two wars should ever be told that your check did 
not come in this month because Uncle Sam cannot pay his bills.
  Mr. Speaker, before closing, these two little girls beside me on this 
poster, their father, Sergeant Balduff from Camp Lejeune, was sent to 
Afghanistan with Colonel Palmer from Cherry Point Marine Air Station to 
train Afghans to be policemen. Sergeant Balduff emailed his wife, Amy, 
the night before he died and said, ``I don't trust them. I don't trust 
them. I don't trust any of them.'' The next night, a trainee stood up 
at a dinner and shot and killed the colonel and the sergeant.
  To my friends who have spoken and my friends who are speaking after 
me, we must demand that this Congress awaken from its sleep on 
Afghanistan.

                              {time}  1020

  The American people are ready to bring our troops home. We don't need 
to wait till 2013, 2014, or 2015. We need to say to the President, 
Start the process this fall. It will take a year to bring them home. If 
you announce that you're going to bring them home this year, it will 
take a year before they come home.
  These two little girls are standing at their father's grave at 
Arlington Cemetery. How many children have cried, and how many children 
have felt pain, and how many babies will never know their father or 
their mother?
  To my colleagues on the other side and my colleagues on this side, 
let's come together. Let's end the war in Afghanistan. Karzai is a 
crook. Afghanistan's history said no great nation will ever conquer 
Afghanistan.
  So, as I close, Mr. Speaker, as always, 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'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 the American people. And I ask God to 
please bless the President, that he will do what is right in the eyes 
of God for the American people.
  And I close by asking three times, God, please, God, please, God, 
please continue to bless America.

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