[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13581]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




SMART SECURITY: LEADING WITH OUR COMPASSION, NOT OUR MILITARY FIREPOWER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, a few minutes from now, Members of the 
House and the Senate will head to the Capitol steps. We're going to the 
Capitol steps for a moment of remembrance to honor those who were 
killed in the attacks on September 11, 2001--September 11, 2001, a day 
that will forever be seared into the memory of American citizens and 
the world.
  Eleven years later, Mr. Speaker, spouses still grieve; children still 
feel the void; parents are still devastated by the loss of their 
children. It was a tragedy for individual families and for the entire 
Nation. One of the lingering tragedies of that day is that it led to 
policy decisions with terrible consequences that we're still living 
with today. Over the last decade-plus, violence and mayhem have just 
led to more violence and mayhem.
  Our continued military occupation of Afghanistan has not brought the 
stability. It has not brought security. It has not brought a strong 
democracy to that country. Afghanistan remains one of the poorest and 
most dangerous places on Earth. The Taliban has not been driven into 
oblivion. The terrorist threats continue. And according to a New York 
Times article this past weekend, even U.S. commanders are admitting 
that the Taliban remains ``resilient'' while al Qaeda is ``evolving'' 
and ``adapting.''
  Mr. Speaker, while we in the House adjourned for the month of August, 
there was no recess for our troops. In fact, since we were last in 
session, another 60 U.S. servicemembers died in Afghanistan. Countless 
more suffered wounds to the body and to the brain. And then there are 
the Afghan civilians, many of them children, who are being killed every 
single day. How do we tell the families of these children that this is 
all for a good and just cause? We can't.
  Mr. Speaker, it's time to stop conducting national security policy on 
the principles of revenge and retaliation and on the false hope that we 
are making it better. The right way to secure and ensure security is to 
put America's best foot forward, to lead with our compassion and not 
our military power.
  That's what my SMART Security platform is all about. It puts 
development and diplomacy front and center, and it makes war a last 
resort. It is based on a commitment to improving the lives of Afghan 
people, alleviating power, creating economic opportunity, rebuilding 
infrastructure, improving education, and attacking public health 
problems in that area.
  We can't do this with the military surge. We can only do it with a 
civilian surge--a surge of experts, of aid workers, of technical 
experts, from engineers to midwives. Of course, our development 
agencies are doing this kind of work, and they're doing the best they 
can possibly do, but not nearly the scale that's necessary to make this 
possible. Compared to billions of dollars every month that we spend on 
the war, we're investing just a tiny fraction of that on humanitarian 
work that is so badly needed.
  Public opinion has turned dramatically against this war, and yet our 
most visible leaders continue to lag behind the people that elected 
them. The President of the United States says he will end this war in 
2014, which is a good goal, but it is not nearly soon enough. His 
opponent, on the other hand, in the most important speech of his life a 
few weeks ago, didn't see fit to even mention Afghanistan--not even 
once.
  So, Mr. Speaker, when we gather on the steps of the Capitol, as I bow 
my head, it will be in remembrance of those who died 11 years ago 
today, and it will also be with a fervent prayer of hope that we can 
honor their memory by finally ending the war in Afghanistan and finally 
bringing our troops home.

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