[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4869]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 BRING OUR TROOPS HOME FROM AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I am back on the floor today because, while 
we were home during the Easter break, there was a tragedy in 
Afghanistan that largely escaped the national news.
  On April 8, Army medic John Dawson was shot and killed and eight 
other Americans were wounded by an Afghan soldier who opened fire on 
them. This tragedy is yet another example of the American blood spilled 
in Afghanistan.
  Sadly, this kind of tragedy, an American soldier being killed by a 
supposed Afghan ally, is nothing new. The poster I have with me today 
is a picture of two little girls, Eden and Stephanie, who lived in my 
district for a time.
  Their father, Sergeant Kevin Balduf, who was stationed at Camp 
Lejeune in my district, died in May of 2011 in Afghanistan, along with 
Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Palmer, who also was stationed in my 
district at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
  They were shot by an Afghan policeman they were training. The night 
before Sergeant Balduf died, he emailed his wife, Amy, and he said:

       I don't trust them. I don't trust them. I don't trust any 
     of them.

  The next day, he was killed.
  Mr. Speaker, last December, when Congress passed final appropriations 
for fiscal year 2015, it provided $4.1 billion for the Afghan National 
Security Forces and additional funding for development assistance. This 
is more money than the Afghan Government generates in a year.
  The special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction, John Sopko, 
regularly produces reports of the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse of 
American taxpayer dollars in Afghanistan; yet we in Congress continue 
to spend billions in Afghanistan. To what end? Why are we going to 
spend billions of dollars and have troops in Afghanistan for 9 more 
years--for 9 more years, Mr. Speaker?
  As Roger Simon, an editor with Politico, said in October 2014:

       If you spent 13 years pounding money down a rathole with 
     little to show for it, you might wake up one morning and say: 
     ``Hey, I'm going to stop pounding money down this rathole.'' 
     The United States Government wakes up every morning and says: 
     ``The rathole is looking a little empty today. Let's pound a 
     few more billion dollars down there.''

  Mr. Speaker, that is sad for the American taxpayer who, tomorrow, 
many of the American taxpayers will pay their taxes to the Federal 
Government; and we, in Congress, will continue to take their tax money 
and spend billions over in Afghanistan with very little accountability 
for the American taxpayer. That is unacceptable.
  When you look at the limbs and the death that is going on in 
Afghanistan, you wonder why someone, years ago, said that Afghanistan 
is the graveyard of empires. Yes, Mr. Speaker, America is headed for 
the graveyard in Afghanistan. I don't understand my colleagues in 
Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan 
once and for all. We have wasted billions of dollars and spilled so 
much American blood in a futile attempt to save a fractured country 
from itself. Afghanistan is truly the graveyard of empires that I just 
mentioned. It is time for Congress to lead the way and end our presence 
in Afghanistan.
  May God continue to bless our men and women in uniform, and may God 
continue to bless America.

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