[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15485-15486]
[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 have been listening to both sides in this 
very important debate: the future of America and where we are going and 
how we are going to pay for the future of this country. What is amazing 
to me is that President Karzai of Afghanistan, I don't believe he has 
furloughed one person.
  We are furloughing U.S. Government workers all across this Nation, 
but Mr. Karzai continues to get his millions and millions of dollars. 
Mr. Speaker, this is unnecessary. I don't know why we in Congress 
continue to fund a war where we can't even get an accountability from 
the inspectors. It makes no sense.
  I want to read three paragraphs from an article I read this weekend, 
called, ``The Forgotten War.'' One of the paragraphs:

       But even when the war ``ends'' and Americans have forgotten 
     it altogether, it won't be over in Afghanistan. Obama and 
     Karzai continue negotiating towards a bilateral strategic 
     agreement to allow the United States to keep at least nine of 
     the biggest bases it built and several thousand trainers, and 
     undoubtedly Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan, 
     seemingly forever.

  Another of the paragraphs:

       It won't be over in the United States either. For American 
     soldiers who took part in it and returned with catastrophic 
     physical and mental injuries and for their families, the 
     battles are just beginning. For American taxpayers, the war 
     will continue at least until mid-century. Think of all the 
     families of the dead soldiers to be compensated for their 
     losses, all the wounded with their health care bills, all the 
     brain-damaged veterans at the VA hospitals. Think of the 
     outgoing costs of their drugs and prosthetics and benefits. 
     Medical and disability costs alone are projected to reach 
     $754 billion, not to mention the hefty retirement pay of all 
     those generals who issued all those reports of progress as 
     they so ambitiously fought more than one war leading nowhere.

  Mr. Speaker, just this past weekend, we had five Americans brought 
back in flag-draped coffins. I doubt sincerely if many people in this 
country read that report, that five Americans came back in a flag-
draped coffin.
  I do not understand why this Congress continues to have these 
difficulties of trying to fix our own problems in this country, but 
don't worry about the waste, fraud, and abuse--and, more important, the 
loss of limb and body and heart that our kids have been giving in 
Afghanistan.
  I will close by reading one more paragraph from the article, called, 
``The Forgotten War'':

       Will the United States still be meddling in Afghanistan 30 
     years from now? If history is any guide, the answer is 
     ``yes''; and if history is any guide, three decades from now, 
     most Americans will have only the haziest idea why.

  I can only say to the families of those five patriots who came back 
in a flag-draped coffin, may we never forget. May we never forget that 
the war in Afghanistan continues to go on and on and probably will for 
the next 30 years. Come on, Congress, let's get together. Let's stop 
spending money in Afghanistan. More important, let's stop sending our 
young men and women to give their limbs and their life.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, as I always do, I ask God to please bless 
our men

[[Page 15486]]

and women in uniform. I ask God to please bless the families of our men 
and women in uniform. I ask God, in His loving arms, to hold the 
families who have given a child dying for freedom in Afghanistan and 
Iraq. I ask God to bless us in the House and Senate, bless the 
President, and, please, God, three times, God, please, God, please, 
God, please, continue to bless America.

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