[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15304]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                CALLING FOR AN END TO WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Garamendi) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues here in Congress 
from both sides of the aisle to call for an end to the war in 
Afghanistan. After more than a decade of war, with now more than 2,000 
lives lost and hundreds of billions of American tax dollars spent, it's 
time for our troops to come home to their families.
  I represent the military communities of Travis Air Force Base, and 
come January I will represent the community of Beale Air Force Base as 
well. I can tell you from firsthand experience that the men and women 
who serve in our Nation's military and their families are America's 
finest. They are not afraid of sacrifice. They joined the armed forces 
because they love our country and they are willing to give everything 
to keep our Nation safe, but their sacrifice must be for a reason. If 
we're going to ask them to risk life and limb on the other side of the 
world, it must be for a mission that is vital to our Nation's security. 
We can no longer say that about the mission in Afghanistan.
  Our brave soldiers are continuing to die in Afghanistan for what is 
now a war of choice. We sent them to eliminate the terrorists 
responsible for the terrible 9/11 tragedy, and they did it with 
remarkable courage and competence. The al Qaeda training camps have 
long been eliminated; most of al Qaeda's top leaders have been killed 
or captured; Osama bin Laden is long dead.

                              {time}  1030

  Terrorism remains a global threat, and we must combat it. But keeping 
tens of thousands of troops in a country the size of Texas is no way to 
achieve this objective. Rather, we must continue to use our superb 
intelligence capabilities and our special operation forces to root out 
the terrorist networks and destroy their leaderships wherever they may 
be.
  When we do bring our troops home, we must ensure that our returning 
heroes receive the support that is their due when they get back. We 
must make sure that they have access to housing, medical care, 
employment, educational opportunities that they deserve, and we must 
take care of all of our veterans.
  The war in Afghanistan has lasted 11 long years, and it must not last 
another. It's time to bring our troops home. And as we do so, we must 
turn our attention to rebuild America's economy. One way to do this is 
to focus on enhancing our green energy sector.
  The American wind energy industry is in jeopardy. The production tax 
credit will end December 31, 2012. It must be extended or else 30,000 
jobs will be lost and 450 manufacturing businesses will close.
  Two additional measures must also be considered. First, we could 
apply the master limited partnership and the real estate investment tax 
programs to the green energy sector and, thereby, bring significant 
financing opportunities along with the production tax credit.

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