[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 254-255]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           SMART SECURITY: TO CREATE AN AMERICA BUILT TO LAST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, tonight when the President of the United 
States addresses our Nation from this Chamber, we will hear some good 
news on the national security front. The end of the Iraq war, for 
example, is an impressive accomplishment, one that wouldn't have 
happened if bold progressives hadn't called for our troops to be 
brought home way back in 2005.
  I'm also pleased the President's leadership will make it possible for 
our military strategic review to call for significant reductions in 
defense spending.
  But on both of these fronts, ending our current wars and long-range 
national security strategy, I'm hoping for proposals that are bigger 
and bolder than what we've heard to this point.
  Bottom line, Mr. Speaker, we need to end the war in Afghanistan, and 
we need to end it now, not 2014. Not at whatever other later date the 
military brass decides is appropriate. After nearly 1,900 American 
deaths and more than 10 years of bloodshed and mayhem, we owe it to our 
troops and to their families, as well as American taxpayers, to bring 
them home.
  This war is not just a moral disgrace, not just a humanitarian 
disaster, Mr. Speaker; it's a strategic failure. We're spending at 
least $10 billion every month to prop up a regime in Afghanistan that 
is ineffective on its best day and downright corrupt on its worst.
  Afghanistan continues to be racked by poverty and violence, and my 
belief is that by continuing to have military boots on the ground, 
we're encouraging more animosity towards the United States, giving the 
Taliban a recruitment tool, and thus, undermining our security.
  Mr. Speaker, we need a new security program. We need a new security 
paradigm, an entirely fresh way of thinking about how to keep our 
Nation safe. Won't we make more friends and win more hearts and minds 
if we extend a hand of friendship to the rest of the world instead of 
rattling the saber at the first sign of trouble?
  Actually, that's the heart of my SMART security platform. Why are we 
spending pennies on humanitarian aid for every dollar we're spending on 
weapons and warfare? Instead of a military surge, we need a civilian 
surge, one that lifts people out of poverty, rebuilds infrastructure, 
promotes education, especially for women and girls, and combats 
malnutrition and global health problems around the world.
  SMART security is a renewed commitment to diplomacy, multilateralism, 
and peaceful conflict resolution. It would support a dramatic 
downsizing of the military industrial complex. Believe it or not, the 
Pentagon consumes 56 percent of discretionary spending with a budget 
bigger in real dollars than it was at the height of the Soviet threat. 
And with SMART security, we can reverse that.
  Tonight I'm told the President will sound the theme of an America 
built to last. But no Nation, Mr. Speaker, that exists in a state of 
semipermanent warfare can be built to last. I worry about how we can be 
built to last when we have enough nuclear warheads to blow the world to 
smithereens many times over.
  Now is the time, Mr. Speaker. Our common humanity compels us to bring 
the troops home from Afghanistan and

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implement a SMART security agenda. Now is the time.

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