[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17576-17577]
[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 am again on the floor today because our 
Nation has failed to heed the warning of George Washington, who told us 
to beware of foreign entanglements.
  We have lost over 4,474 Americans in Iraq and 2,276 Americans in 
Afghanistan. In both of these wars combined, 46,720 of our 
servicemembers have been wounded. Furthermore, the American taxpayer is 
spending $10.45 million every hour to pay for the cost of the war in 
Afghanistan since 2001. Mr. Speaker, let me repeat that. We are 
spending $10.45 million an hour just to pay for the money spent in 
Afghanistan since 2001. Despite these facts, we are now entering into a 
long-term agreement that, at best, is a failure--at best is a failure.
  It is with great disappointment that I share an NBC article, 
entitled, ``Endless Afghanistan? United States-Afghanistan Agreement 
Would Keep Troops in Place and Funds Flowing Perhaps Indefinitely''--
perhaps until

[[Page 17577]]

2024. I would like to read a short paragraph and submit for the record 
a few additional excerpts.

       While many Americans have been led to believe the war in 
     Afghanistan will soon be over, a draft of a key United 
     States-Afghan security deal obtained by NBC News shows the 
     United States is prepared to maintain military outposts in 
     Afghanistan for many years to come, and pay to support 
     hundreds of thousands of Afghan security forces.

  Mr. Speaker, George Washington was right. Afghanistan is an 
impossible situation. History has proven that it is impossible. The 
Bilateral Security Agreement will only serve to endanger American lives 
and squander taxpayers' money. I implore my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle to join me in standing up for the American people in 
opposition to the signing of this agreement.
  Mr. Speaker, the President has the constitutional right to enter into 
the agreement. We have no oversight on the agreement itself, but we can 
put a resolution on the floor and let the Congress debate and let the 
American people know that we realize what we are doing in Afghanistan, 
instead of continuing to pass budget bills to fund Karzai.
  Mr. Speaker, I have got a little poster here of Karzai. The man is a 
corrupt leader. All he is doing is taking the taxpayers' money and 
becoming richer and richer. Mr. Speaker, the funny and sad thing about 
this in the poster--it is a cartoon--there is a poor American soldier 
standing behind Karzai, who is at a money machine, and it says the 
thoughts of the soldier:

       I would like to make a quick withdrawal from here.

  To the American soldier, I am sorry to say, if we don't do our job in 
Congress, you will be there until 2024.
  The American people need to call their Members of Congress and say 
that we do not accept this agreement to keep our troops there until 
2024. If you can't stop it, at least have a debate on the floor of the 
House and pass a resolution to say this is what the American people 
want to see: no long-term agreement with Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank God for blessing our troops and blessing 
America.

 Excerpts for the Record from NBC News Article ``Endless Afghanistan? 
   US-Afghan Agreement Would Keep Troops in Place and Funds Flowing, 
                         Perhaps Indefinitely''

       While many Americans have been led to believe the war in 
     Afghanistan will soon be over, a draft of a key U.S.-Afghan 
     security deal obtained by NBC News shows the United States is 
     prepared to maintain military outposts in Afghanistan for 
     many years to come, and pay to support hundreds of thousands 
     of Afghan security forces.
       The wide-ranging document, still unsigned by the United 
     States and Afghanistan, has the potential to commit thousands 
     of American troops to Afghanistan and spend billions of U.S. 
     taxpayer dollars.
       The document outlines what appears to be the start of a 
     new, open-ended military commitment in Afghanistan in the 
     name of training and continuing to fight al-Qaeda. The war in 
     Afghanistan doesn't seem to be ending, but renewed under new, 
     scaled-down U.S.-Afghan terms.
       The deal, according to the text, would take effect on Jan. 
     1, 2015 and ``shall remain in force until the end of 2024 and 
     beyond.''
       The document doesn't specifically say how many U.S. and 
     NATO troops would remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014. Afghan 
     officials tell NBC News they hope it will be 10 to 15 
     thousand. U.S. officials tell NBC News the number is closer 
     to seven to eight thousand, with an additional contribution 
     from NATO.
       Factoring in troop rotations, home leave, and breaks 
     between deployments, the service of tens of thousands of 
     American troops would be required to maintain a force of 
     seven to eight thousand for a decade or longer. The 
     anticipated costs would likely run into the billions quickly.
       [T]he United States shall have an obligation to seek funds 
     on a yearly basis to support the training, equipping, 
     advising and sustaining of the Afghan National Security 
     Forces (ANSF).

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