[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1600]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             A BRAVE AFGHANISTAN TRUTH-TELLER COMES FORWARD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, it was an ancient Greek playwright who 
originally said: ``Trust is the first casualty of war.'' More than 
2,500 years later, those words still hold painfully and tragically 
true.
  Tomorrow afternoon, I will join several of my colleagues in meeting 
with Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis who has embarked on a brave truth-
telling campaign about the war in Afghanistan.

                              {time}  1010

  After two combat deployments to Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Davis 
has written two reports--one classified, one unclassified--in which he 
tells what he has seen. As part of his assignment with the Rapid 
Equipping Force, he traveled across Afghanistan several times, spanning 
some 9,000 miles, and visited with hundreds of troops as well as with 
Afghan civilians and Afghan security forces.
  What he saw were Afghan police who stay in the safe harbor of their 
checkpoints while allowing the Taliban to roam free. What he saw were 
Afghan local governments completely unprepared to protect and provide 
for their people. What he heard were stories of, in his words, ``how 
insurgents controlled virtually every piece of land beyond eyeshot of a 
U.S. or International Security Assistance Force base.''
  Madam Speaker, this is not exactly the story we've been getting from 
top military brass when they report on the status of the Afghanistan 
war. Lieutenant Colonel Davis' experience is yet one more example of 
how we're not getting the entire story.
  As he puts it:

       Senior ranking U.S. military leaders have so distorted the 
     truth when communicating with the U.S. Congress and American 
     people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan 
     that the truth has become unrecognizable.

  He continues:

       This deception has damaged America's credibility among both 
     our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to 
     reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan.

  Madam Speaker, after everything Americans have sacrificed--the lives, 
limbs, the mental capacities of thousands of our people, the billions 
of dollars every month, our global reputation, and credibility--the 
least we are owed is the unvarnished truth. For the price the Nation 
has paid, we deserve transparency and not the propaganda we're 
receiving. A good start would be to declassify the National 
Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan as well as to publicly release the 
classified version of Lieutenant Colonel Davis' story.
  Some have suggested that Lieutenant Colonel Davis is a publicity 
seeker. My only response to that is, I certainly hope so. I want the 
message out. Goodness knows, the other side of the story, the official 
party line that the Afghanistan war is a strategic success, has gotten 
plenty of publicity over the last decade. It's about time that a 
different version of events got close to equal time.
  I hope my colleagues, in particular those who have supported the 
Afghanistan war year in and year out, will read what Lieutenant Colonel 
Davis has written, and I hope they will consider the significant risk 
he has taken and the patriotism he has shown. I look forward to meeting 
Lieutenant Colonel Davis today, and I look forward to the Nation 
finally heeding his words, honoring his courage and vindicating his 
story by bringing our troops home.

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