[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 18221]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  (Ms. LEE of California asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, as most of us joined family and 
friends over Thanksgiving week last week, 2,500 Afghan elders voted on 
a security agreement that could potentially leave thousands of United 
States troops in Afghanistan for at least another decade.
  If the Afghan people are having a say in continued American troops in 
that country, at the very least this Congress should also debate and 
vote on any such agreement.
  The war in Afghanistan has just entered its 13th year, and the need 
to bring our troops home remains urgent. President Karzai has recently 
suggested that he sees no potential security benefit from an ongoing 
United States security mission. I couldn't agree more, and the American 
people have long understood that there is no military solution in 
Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, especially at a time now when rising income inequality 
and harmful sequester cuts are hurting families and communities here at 
home, we need to get our priorities in order and stop spending good 
money after bad in Afghanistan.
  We have known for years of the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in 
Afghanistan, including bags of cash from the CIA being handed over in 
suit cases and plastic bags to corrupt Afghan government officials.
  Enough is enough.
  We need to end the corruption and end this war.

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