[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16132-16133]
[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, I find it so ironic that our Nation is on the 
cliff of collapse and yet we continue to borrow money from China to 
prop up a corrupt leader in Afghanistan. Our country is in the most 
dire of fiscal straits, and we continue to send money to Afghanistan. 
The worst part is, the money we are sending, we cannot audit, and many 
times the taxpayers' money ends up in the hands of the Taliban to buy 
weapons to kill Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, this poster beside me is a book that I read. The title 
is, ``Funding the Enemy.'' The subtitle is, ``How U.S. Taxpayers 
Bankroll the Taliban.''
  I would like to quote Lisa Freeman, who recently acknowledged that we 
have lost 2,000 young Americans in Afghanistan. She lost her son, 
Captain Matthew Freeman, in 2007, in Afghanistan. Ms. Freeman said:

       Where is America's outrage? Where is America's concern that 
     we're still at war?

  I agree with Ms. Freeman. Where is the outrage here in Congress? Does 
it make any sense that we continue to borrow money from foreign 
governments to prop up a corrupt leader and half the money going to the 
leader of Afghanistan ends up in the hands of the Taliban to buy 
weapons to kill Americans? Our Nation is broke--China owns us--and 
we're sending our young men and our money to Afghanistan, yet we're 
going to cut programs right here in America for the American people.
  The American people need to put the pressure on Congress to bring our 
troops home now and not wait until December of 2014. Mr. Speaker, I 
assure you, if we start bringing them home in December of 2014, it will 
become 2015 and it will become 2016, and how many more families have to 
cry about their loved ones being killed in a war that has no end to it?
  Mr. Speaker, again, I ask the people to look at this poster and 
realize that this war is costing us in so many, many ways--the most 
important, our young men and women who are dying. If you agree with me 
that we need to bring

[[Page 16133]]

our troops home before the current December 2014 deadline, please go to 
www.bringthemhome2013.com and sign the petition.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been to Walter Reed and Bethesda now so many 
times to see the broken bodies, to see the faces of the moms and dads 
with pain in their face, to see the young men or women's faces that 
know that they will never be physically able to do what they had done 
before going to Afghanistan.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I make one last reference. I would hope that 
colleagues of mine in both parties would read this book, ``Funding the 
Enemy,'' by Douglas Wissing, ``How the U.S. Taxpayers Bankroll the 
Taliban.''
  This is a sin, and it must stop.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask God to please bless our men and women in uniform, 
to please bless the families of our men and women in uniform, to bless 
the families who have given a child dying for freedom in Afghanistan 
and Iraq. And I ask God to help this Congress come together with the 
Senate and come forward with a plan that we, the American people, can 
be proud of. I ask three times, God please, God please, God please 
continue to bless America.

               Names of Recently Deceased in Afghanistan

     Spc. Daniel L. Carlson
     Pfc. Brandon L. Buttry
     Staff Sgt. Dain T. Venne
     Spc. Ryan P. Jayne
     Spc. Brett E. Gornewicz
     Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew G. Kantor
     Cpl. Alex F. Domion
     Staff Sgt. Kashif M. Memon
     Sgt. Clinton K. Ruiz
     Chief Warrant Officer Michael S. Duskin
     Pfc. Shane G. Wilson
     Sgt. Robert J. Billings
     Spc. Brittany B. Gordon
     Cmdr. Joel Del Mundo Tiu
     Sgt. First Class Ryan J. Savard
     Sgt. Thomas R. Macpherson
     Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Milton W. Brown
     Warrant Officer Joseph L. Schiro
     Staff Sgt. Justin C. Marquez
     Sgt. Camella M. Steedley
     Sgt. 1st Class Daniel T. Metcalfe
     Sgt. Thomas J. Butler IV
     Sgt. Jeremy F. Hardison
     Sgt. Donna R. Johnson
     Sgt. 1st Class Aaron A. Henderson
     Sgt. 1st Class Riley G. Stephens
     Staff Sgt. Orion N. Sparks
     Sgt. Jonathan A. Gollnitz

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