[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7898-7899]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE AFGHANISTAN-IRAQ WAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, like all Members of Congress during the 
Memorial week break, I had two occasions to give different types of 
recognition speeches to the families of those who gave loved ones who 
never came back from war; so therefore I had several opportunities in 
eastern North Carolina, the home of Camp Lejeune Marine Base and Cherry 
Point Marine Corps Air Station.
  Every time I would make the comment that it was time to bring our 
troops home from Afghanistan and that it was time to stop paying the 
crook named Karzai, who is the President of Afghanistan, truthfully, 
Mr. Speaker, I would get strong applause; and many times after the 
speeches, people would come up to me and say, We agree with you. It's 
time to stop spending this money in Afghanistan. It's time to start 
spending the money in America and to let the Afghans take care of 
themselves.
  Mr. Speaker, probably a couple of weeks ago, I spoke on the floor of 
the House, and probably other Members had seen the article that was in 
The New York Times in which the CIA acknowledged that, after 10 years, 
they had been giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Karzai in cash. 
In that same article, Karzai was interviewed, and

[[Page 7899]]

one of his comments was that of ``an easy source of petty cash.'' 
Karzai wants to continue to get an easy source of petty cash--tens of 
millions of dollars going to Karzai in order to prop him up until the 
Taliban takes Afghanistan over. When I think about the number of young 
men and women being killed in Afghanistan to prop up this corrupt 
leader, it reminds me of another tragedy in recent American history--
the tragedy of the unnecessary war in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, this past week, in being home, I watched three times on 
HBO a movie called ``Taking Chance,'' which is the true story of 
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl's journey to escort the body of PFC 
Chance Phelps, a fellow marine who died in Iraq, from Dover Air Force 
Base to the young man's funeral in Wyoming. It is a beautiful story of 
love, of pain, and of concern. I hope that Members of Congress as well 
as the American people will get a chance to see the movie called 
``Taking Chance.'' It's a true story. In that story about Taking Chance 
home, it is a beautiful understanding of the pain and the love of those 
at Dover Air Force Base who receive the remains from Afghanistan and 
who take care of those remains. It is absolutely heart-wrenching to see 
the love that these people have for those who have given their lives 
for this country.
  Mr. Speaker, after seeing this movie and then reading in the papers 
that Iraq is falling apart, I would like to say to Mr. Rumsfeld and to 
the previous administration: thank you for getting us into this 
unnecessary war. Mr. Rumsfeld, you were wrong. You said that Iraqi oil 
was going to pay for the war. No. The Chinese are benefiting.
  This is another article in The New York Times in which it says that 
China is the biggest winner. According to this article, the Chinese buy 
almost half of the oil produced in Iraq.
  Again, the previous administration got us into an unnecessary war. In 
fact, a Defense Department official from the Bush administration said:

       We lost out. The Chinese had nothing to do with the war, 
     but from an economic standpoint, they are benefiting from it, 
     and our Fifth Fleet and Air Forces are helping to assure 
     their supply.

  Even worse, we are borrowing this Chinese money to fund this corrupt 
leader.
  I hope that Congress will wake up. Next week, we will be debating the 
armed services bill. I am on that committee. I have worked across the 
aisle with my friends on the Democratic side to cut the funding for 
Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, I have this photograph of a flag-draped 
coffin. It could have been PFC Chance Phelps' coffin--it's not, but it 
could have been--or it could have been the coffin of 4,400 other 
servicemen and women who died in Iraq.
  God, please continue to bless our men and women in uniform. God, 
continue to bless America; and please, God, let us never forget the 
sacrifices made by so many in these wars that are unnecessary and in 
these wars that are necessary.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. As a reminder, Members should address their 
remarks to the Chair.

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