[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4360-4361]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  U.S.-AFGHANISTAN POLICY IN SHAMBLES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, the situation in Afghanistan is as bleak as 
I can remember at any point in the last 10\1/2\ years that we've been 
at war.
  In recent months, we've seen the burning of the Koran by American 
troops, a video of soldiers urinating on bodies of dead Afghans, 
spontaneous riots in the Afghan streets protesting the continued U.S. 
occupation, as well as deadly attacks by Afghan soldiers on the U.S. 
and NATO forces that are there to help and to train them.
  And now, in the most grotesque tragedy imaginable, 2 weeks ago a U.S. 
staff sergeant left his base, walked more than a mile to an Afghan 
village outside Kandahar, going door-to-door and systematically gunning 
down 17 civilians.
  The New York Times reported that one Afghan farmer was visiting a 
nearby town for the day and returned home to find that his wife, four 
sons, and four daughters had all been murdered

[[Page 4361]]

in the attack. And here's the irony: According to the Times' account, 
because the Taliban still lingered in the area, the farmer had been 
concerned about moving his family back to this part of southern 
Afghanistan last year, but he was reassured by the very fact that he 
would be near an American military base.
  With these latest atrocities, how can we expect President Karzai, a 
reluctant ally under the best of circumstances, to continue to 
cooperate? How do we expect to convince the Taliban to come to the 
negotiating table for a peace and reconciliation settlement? And most 
importantly, after this incident, how do we convince the people of 
Afghanistan that we are their friends, that our presence in their 
country is a force for good?
  Staff Sergeant Robert Bales will be tried for these unspeakable 
crimes, but I also think any responsibility analysis would conclude 
that he is also a victim of the war. He was on his fourth deployment. 
He clearly suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder, or even worse, 
mental health affliction. He clearly had no business being on active 
duty.
  Mr. Speaker, more than a decade of war is weakening and wreaking 
havoc with the bodies and minds of our servicemembers. Staff Sergeant 
Bales will be held to account. But what about the cruel and unforgiving 
war machine that absolutely has to bear some responsibility? When are 
we going to finally set warfare aside and embrace a SMART Security 
approach?
  Yesterday, 80 retired top military leaders took out an ad in Politico 
calling for robust investment in development, diplomacy, and other 
civilian efforts that will do a lot more than military force to keep 
America safe. And yet the Republican budget we'll debate later today 
cuts that very foreign aid in humanitarian programs.

                              {time}  1030

  When will we learn, Mr. Speaker? How bad does it have to get?
  Our Afghanistan policy is an absolute shambles, and the American 
people know it. The latest polling shows more than two-thirds, 69 
percent, believe we shouldn't be waging this war.
  This is the moment we must realize that this mission has no hope of 
succeeding, that the only humane and responsible course is to end the 
war at once. This is the moment, finally, after all the tragedy and 
mayhem, to bring our troops home.

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