[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13011]
[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, on July 22, The New York Times published an 
article titled ``Afghan Security Forces Struggle Just to Maintain 
Stalemate,'' by Joseph Goldstein.
  Mr. Goldstein writes that, because of extremely high casualty rates 
in the Afghan security forces, there is also a high desertion rate. As 
a result, the Afghans are struggling to maintain adequate numbers in 
their security forces, meaning, it is becoming extremely difficult for 
them to keep the Taliban at bay.
  The article is of great concern for those of us who have watched the 
fight against the Taliban since 2001. We have lost over 2,355 men and 
women in Afghanistan, with 20,000 wounded, and spent over $685 billion.
  The history of Afghanistan has shown that no outside military force 
has ever changed it, from Alexander the Great, to the British, to the 
Russians. Yet, last year the Obama administration signed a 9-year 
agreement, committing American money and manpower in Afghanistan that 
was not voted on by the Congress.
  That is so ironic. We are talking about voting on this agreement with 
Iran, but we did not vote to commit our troops and our money to 
Afghanistan for 9 more years.
  As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I am concerned by Mr. 
Goldstein's report. Let me give two quotes from his article about the 
ability of the Afghan security forces to keep the Taliban at bay that I 
found very, very concerning.
  First: ``A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry . . . insisted 
that desertions remained rare and that there had been no effort to ban 
leaves or to stop rotations away from the front to cut down on the 
number of people going absent without leave.''
  The second quote: ``But interviews with soldiers and police officers 
repeatedly countered the government's claims. One Army major said . . . 
`Once the soldiers are taken for their breaks, they are unwilling to 
come back and join their duty.'''
  Once again, Mr. Speaker, the Afghan Government is untruthful and 
corrupt. Yet, we continue to spend billions of dollars at this losing 
cause.
  It is not fair to the taxpayers of eastern North Carolina, the 
taxpayers of America, or anybody in this country that pays taxes that 
we will continue to send money there to build their infrastructure and 
rebuild their roads and then to have the Taliban blow them up. It makes 
no sense.
  I can assure President Ghani, the President of Afghanistan, that the 
United States House continues to spend billions of dollars on Afghan 
reconstruction so the Taliban can continue to destroy what we send over 
there with the taxpayers' money to be built.
  We in Congress should stop funding this rathole of a policy in 
Afghanistan, which has basically given the Afghan Government a blank 
check every year and will for the next 9 years.
  History has proven that we will never change this tribal nation, and 
we should stop trying. Instead, let's focus on fixing our economy here 
in America.
  God bless our troops, and God bless America.

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