[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15770]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the Republican Conference, I 
acknowledged that five marines and one soldier from my district, the 
Third District of North Carolina, had been killed in Afghanistan by the 
Afghans they were training. This, to me, just does not make any sense 
at all as to why we stay in Afghanistan.
  I also shared with the Conference an email I got from the former 
Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, who has actually been my 
adviser on Afghanistan for 3 years. I said, Mr. Commandant, why do we 
stand by and see our American soldiers, Marines, killed by those people 
we're training? I said, Mr. Commandant, how many more have to die, 
killed at the hands of the people they're trying to help?
  And I read this from the Commandant:

       At the end of the day, I am more convinced than ever that 
     we need to get out of Afghanistan. When our friends turn out 
     to be our enemy, it is time to pull the plug. The idea that 
     troops we have trained and equipped now turn that training 
     and equipment on us is simply unconscionable. Whether we 
     leave tomorrow or 1,000 tomorrows from now, nothing will 
     really change. We are now nothing more than a recruiting 
     poster for every malcontent in the Middle East. We need to 
     wake up.

  I read that yesterday in the Conference, Mr. Speaker. I want my party 
and the Democratic party to wake up and get our troops home.
  Mr. Speaker, recently on CNN's Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz, a 
well-known journalist, Tom Ricks, made the following statement:

       We, as a Nation, seem to care more about the sex lives of 
     our generals than the real lives of our soldiers.

  Mr. Ricks went on to say that probably no one knew who Sergeant 
Channing Hicks and Specialist Joseph Richardson were. They were two 
Americans killed in Afghanistan the Friday before Ricks was 
interviewed. The media will not print those names, but almost everyone 
in the country knows Paula Broadwell. That's such a tragedy, Mr. 
Speaker, that our troops are dying in Afghanistan, and we're writing 
about generals having relationships outside of a marriage. It makes no 
sense.
  We lost 32 Americans in October and November. I want to know, where 
is the outrage here in Congress? Why are we spending money we don't 
have? Why are our troops dying, and yet we just seem to go on and on 
talking about the fiscal cliff? Well, I know that's important.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to realize that we are having 
young men and women die in Afghanistan for a failed policy that will 
not change one thing.
  Mr. Speaker, before closing, I make reference to this poster of a 
young American in a casket being carried by his colleagues to be 
buried. Please, American people, put pressure on Congress to bring our 
troops home now and not wait until December 2014.
  I ask God to please bless our men and women in uniform, to please 
bless the families of those who've lost loved ones in Afghanistan and 
Iraq. I ask God to please bless the United States of America. And 
please, God, help us get our troops home now and not later.

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