[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 826-827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              HOW MANY MORE GROUNDHOG DAYS IN AFGHANISTAN?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, it's Groundhog Day. Phil saw his shadow

[[Page 827]]

this morning, and winter will last 6 more weeks.
  But what comes to mind for me is that old Bill Murray movie called 
``Groundhog Day,'' where he wakes up and the same thing happens day 
after day after day. We're living our own version of ``Groundhog Day'' 
right now, because every morning, for the last 3,700-plus mornings, the 
American people have woken to a Nation at war.

                              {time}  1010

  Every morning, we've woken up to the same scenario--thousands and 
thousands of our fellow Americans in harm's way, occupying a foreign 
nation as part of a reckless policy that is costing us at least $10 
billion a month.
  There was some encouraging news, however, just yesterday as Secretary 
of Defense Panetta said that our combat role in Afghanistan would be 
over as soon as the middle of next year, which is a year earlier than 
we've been talking about. That would be a long overdue but welcome 
development, a belated recognition that this war is doing more harm 
than good in every way we're involved.
  I'll believe it when I see it, though. The goalposts have been moved 
too many times to put much confidence in a single statement. What I've 
heard so far is a little too vague to take to the bank, especially 
since Secretary Panetta maintains that some troops would still remain 
through 2014 in an advisory role and that the commander on the ground, 
just this morning, is reported on the news as sounding less than 
enthusiastic in his response.
  What I'd like to hear, perhaps in conjunction with Secretary Clinton 
and the head of USAID, is that, as our military role recedes, we will 
use all the civilian tools at our disposal to improve the lives of the 
Afghan people, because the real challenge and the best way to advance 
our national security interests is to eliminate the crushing poverty 
and to address the overwhelming humanitarian need in Afghanistan.
  That is what's at the heart of my SMART Security proposal. Instead of 
military force, instead of unmanned, amoral drones that don't know the 
difference between killing an insurgent and killing a child, how about 
we send American compassion to Afghanistan? How about we send our very 
best experts in education, health care, energy, agriculture, legal 
reform, government transparency, and whatever else we have to offer 
that they may want to learn from?
  Even if Secretary Panetta sticks to this timetable, under the best 
case scenario, we have another 500 or so mornings and perhaps another 
Groundhog Day ahead of us, at least 500 more days of the same old, same 
old--Americans dying on a mission that is not making America safer or 
Afghanistan freer.
  The time has come. In fact, it came a long time ago. Let's make 
tomorrow different from the thousands of days that preceded it. Let's 
end the war in Afghanistan now and finally bring our troops home.

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