[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15775]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 ONE LESS PLACE SETTING AT THE HOLIDAYS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, it's the time of year when families reunite 
and renew their very close connections--connections that are actually, 
in most instances, the most precious parts of our lives. This 
Thanksgiving I know all of us were grateful for the company of those we 
love the most. But more than 2,000 American families sat at tables 
where there was one less serving of the Thanksgiving meal just a week 
ago. Those families lost a loved one in the deadly war in Afghanistan--
now more than 11 years long and a tragically reckless policy.
  I'm personally grateful for the service of all of our Afghanistan 
veterans and for their sacrifice and for the sacrifice of our military 
families. But sometimes I don't know how we as a Congress and a Nation 
can look them right straight in the face after everything we've put 
them through. The benefits of this war don't come close to justifying 
the devastating human cost--not just fatalities, but disfiguring 
wounds, lost limbs, traumatic brain injury, and demons of post-
traumatic stress. They all add up to tragedy at the utmost.
  For too many of our veterans, the transition back to civilian life is 
a daily struggle. Many face not just health care challenges but 
joblessness, housing and credit troubles, and overall economic anxiety 
and stress. We've had enough of this. Why would we want to extend a war 
that has given so much misery and so much heartache and so few actual 
national security benefits?
  The American people have rendered their verdict on the occupation of 
Afghanistan. Poll after poll shows they want it over. Who can blame 
them? In fact, the public opinion was so clear during the last 
Presidential election that both candidates for President in this year's 
campaign were saying that they would end the war. But the question, Mr. 
Speaker, is, When? The current 2014 timetable is not nearly aggressive 
enough--not when we're losing brave servicemembers every single week, 
not when our military presence is sustaining the very extremists we're 
trying to defeat, and not when American taxpayers are paying the bill 
to the tune of $10 billion a month, at least.
  And now it seems that our policymakers might be planning for a 
significant military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014. According to 
a new New York Times article last weekend, one of the options on the 
table calls for 10,000 American troops and several thousand more NATO 
troops to remain on the ground after 2014. Sources say that General 
John Allen, our top commander in Afghanistan, prefers to keep as many 
as 60,000 troops for another year. As The Times editorial board points 
out, this is not the ``steady pace'' of troop withdrawal that the 
President has promised.
  This is unacceptable. We ought to have a role in Afghanistan, but it 
cannot and must not be a military role. We need more humanitarian aid, 
more support for education, health care, democracy promotion, civil 
society, and so much more. But we will not make America safer and we 
will not make Afghanistan stronger by continuing this war. The only 
morally decent and strategically sensible approach is to bring our 
troops home now--certainly before 2014.

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