[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16016-16017]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              TRAGIC LOSS OF AMERICAN LIFE IN 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 again today to discuss 
the tragic loss of American life in Afghanistan. This past week, I was 
touched by George Stephanopoulos and ABC as they publicly listed the 
nine servicemembers that died in Iraq and Afghanistan during the month 
of November.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the names of the nine American 
heroes.

       Sergeant John W. Perry of Stockton, California; Private 1st 
     Class Tyler R. Lubelt of Tamaroa, Illinois; Sergeant 1st 
     Class Ryan A. Gloyer of Greenville, Pennsylvania; Captain 
     Andrew D. Byers of Rolesville, North Carolina; Senior Chief 
     Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton of Woodbridge, Virginia; 
     Specialist Ronald L. Murray, Jr., of Bowie, Maryland; Staff 
     Sergeant James F. Moriarty of Kerrville, Texas; Staff 
     Sergeant Kevin J. McEnroe of Tucson, Arizona; Staff Sergeant 
     Matthew C. Lewellen of Lawrence, Kansas.

  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I find it quite ironic that the last moment 
of silence for our men and women in uniform who have died serving this 
Nation during wartime by the House Chair took place on March 23, 2015, 
almost 2 years ago. I, frankly, do not understand how House leadership 
is not more concerned about those who have given their life serving 
this Nation.
  Additionally, Mr. Speaker, I wrote to Secretary of Defense Ashton 
Carter several weeks ago regarding an article that said that there are 
200,000 Afghan soldiers who do not exist--they call them ghosts--who 
are on the payroll of the Department of Defense. I asked him in the 
letter: Why are we wasting this money, and can you identify where the 
money is going?
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record my letter to Secretary Ashton 
Carter.

                                    Congress of the United States,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                 Washington, DC, October 14, 2016.
     Hon. Ashton B. Carter,
     Secretary of Defense,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Secretary Carter: I am responding to Deputy Assistant 
     Secretary of Defense (Acting) Jedidiah Royal's October 3, 
     2016, response to the Office of the Special Inspector General 
     for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)'s letter to you (dated 
     August 5, 2016) regarding ``ghost soldiers'' in Afghanistan.
       I am appalled that the U.S. taxpayer has, and continues to 
     pay, for ``ghost soldiers'' in Afghanistan. Moreover, I am 
     also concerned about the risks that inadequacy of data 
     concerning personnel levels of the Afghan National Security 
     and Defense Forces (ANDSF) may pose to American forces in 
     Afghanistan.
       In Deputy Assistant Secretary Royal's response to SIGAR, he 
     indicates the systems that U.S. Forces-Afghanistan are 
     putting in place to try to verify Afghan personnel data will 
     not be ready until at least July 2017. Given the estimate 
     that there may be up to 200,000 ``ghost soldiers,'' I would 
     respectfully request an estimate of how much funding provided 
     to the ANDSF for salaries in fiscal years 2016 and 2017 is 
     expected to be wasted on ``ghost soldiers.''
       Additionally, Deputy Assistant Secretary Royal indicates 
     that a limited amount of funds has been withheld from the 
     ANDSF for not adhering to the agreed-upon timeline for 
     implementation of personnel verification systems. How much 
     money was withheld, and what percentage does that number 
     represent of the amount originally designated to be 
     allocated?
       Given that many Afghan military and police outposts have 
     limited, if any, access to electricity and telecommunications 
     systems, I would also ask whether there is a contingency plan 
     to back-up the biometric database and personnel system given 
     that units may not always have regular access to the 
     technology needed to operate them? Further, under the current 
     deployment arrangement ordered by President Obama, U.S. 
     forces do not have the capability to witness firsthand, at 
     the lowest levels of the ANDSF, whether there is fraudulent 
     use of the biometric cards. With that in mind, does DOD 
     expect there will be salary overpayments even after July 
     2017?
       I am also concerned about the effect the ``ghost soldier'' 
     problem is having on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. While the 
     Afghan Minister of Defense was recently quoted as saying 
     there is not a single ``ghost soldier'' in Afghanistan, the 
     Deputy Assistant Secretary's letter makes clear that is not 
     the case. We know the collapse of the 215th Corps in Helmand 
     in 2015 was at least in part due to an overestimation of 
     ANDSF personnel in Helmand based on inflated numbers reported 
     to the Ministry of Defense. USFOR-A subsequently deployed 
     additional personnel closer to the front lines in Helmand to 
     assist with improving that corps. The ``ghost soldier'' issue 
     clearly is affecting decision-making within the Defense 
     Department that affects U.S. personnel. I would like to know 
     how DOD plans to mitigate any further risk to U.S. military 
     and civilian personnel that may result from the ongoing 
     ``ghost solider'' problem.
       Finally, how confident is the Defense Department that the 
     ANDSF and the Afghan government have the capability and the 
     will to effectively implement the new systems, and when will 
     that implementation be fully achieved? When implemented, does 
     the Defense Department expect the ``ghost soldier'' problem 
     to be eliminated, or merely reduced?
       Mr. Secretary, the ``ghost soldier'' problem has clearly 
     existed in Afghanistan since the beginning of U.S. operations 
     there. The Defense Department should have known that ``ghost 
     soldiers'' represented a major risk to American personnel and 
     American taxpayers no later than 2008, when a Government 
     Accountability Office report raised the issue. But year after 
     year, the administration--with far too little oversight from 
     Congress--continues sending tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer 
     dollars to pay the salaries of Afghan military and police, 
     thousands of whom never show up for duty or may not even 
     exist. And now, we are almost $20 trillion in debt.
       After 15 years of wounded and murdered Americans, it is 
     time to bring this waste, fraud and abuse to an end. It is 
     sickening, unaffordable, and it must stop. Many scholars have 
     said that Afghanistan is a graveyard of empires--when this 
     financial disaster finally brings us to our knees, maybe the 
     ghost soldiers can visit the headstone that says United 
     States of America.
           Sincerely,
                                                  Walter B. Jones,
                                               Member of Congress.

  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, the reason I mentioned these ghost soldiers 
is because Americans are still dying in this godforsaken country known 
as Afghanistan, all while our Nation is headed for an economic collapse 
as we soon will see the $20 trillion debt number come forward. For the 
sake of our military, we need to end this madness in Afghanistan.

[[Page 16017]]

  I have beside me a photograph of a flag-draped coffin being taken off 
of an airplane. This is a humble way that I can say to the nine 
Americans who also came home in a flag-draped coffin in the back of a 
plane thank you for your service.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to have a debate on the floor of 
the House as to whether we need to stay in Afghanistan for another 16 
years. We have been there for 16 years now.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article that tells the story 
of Afghanistan better than I can today on the floor. The title of that 
article is ``It's Time for America to Get Out of Afghanistan.''

                             [Dec. 2, 2016]

            It's Time for America To Get Out of Afghanistan

                            (By Mark Kryzer)

       ``Nation-building'' hasn't achieved lasting goals, Afghanis 
     continue to suffer casualties and be displaced, and the costs 
     to the U.S. keep mounting.
       After 15 years and $115 billion of taxpayer dollars spent 
     on failed ``nation-building,'' it's time for the U.S. to let 
     go of Afghanistan. (The actual ``total cost of war and 
     reconstruction'' which includes all U.S. military spending, 
     has been estimated at $783 billion by the Cost of War project 
     at Brown University.)
       The situation in 2016 has been described by one senior U.S. 
     government official as an ``eroding stalemate.'' That's 
     optimistic. We are losing whatever has been achieved there 
     and the Afghan government is slowly collapsing under the 
     Taliban onslaught and its own ineptitude driven by 
     corruption.
       The Taliban control more territory now than at any time 
     since their overthrow by the U.S. in 2001 with the Afghan 
     government controlling only two-thirds of the country--during 
     daylight hours. Since January 2016, the Taliban have 
     contested five provincial capitals, carried out some of the 
     largest terrorist attacks in the capital city of Kabul, and 
     have pressed attacks in all 34 provinces of the country, with 
     an average of 68 attacks a day.
       As a result, the Afghan army and police forces have 
     incurred about 15,000 casualties so far this year, with 
     civilians suffering more than 5,000 casualties, the highest 
     levels ever recorded. An estimated 1.2 million Afghans have 
     been displaced because of the fighting and are living as 
     refugees in their own country, with another 85,000 opting to 
     leave the country in the first six months of 2016 alone for 
     the migrant trail to Europe.
       Adding to the Taliban threat, ISIS has now established 
     itself in two eastern Afghan provinces and Al Qaida 
     operatives are active in seven provinces, according to a 
     recent report in ``The Guardian.'' With opium production also 
     up by 43 percent in the country, there is no shortage of 
     funds to fuel the insurgency and corruption.
       According to a 2016 World Bank report, the social and 
     economic gains achieved with international assistance over 
     the last 15 years are also quickly eroding due to war and 
     corruption.
       The Obama administration has opted to leave 8,400 troops in 
     Afghanistan in 2016 in a support role to the Afghan army, 
     down from a high of 100,000 in 2010. And the U.S. completely 
     pays for the Afghan army and police forces. On the civilian 
     side of reconstruction, the U.S. continues to pour money into 
     the country for ``nation-building.'' At the Brussels 
     Afghanistan ``Donors Conference'' in early October, the 
     international community pledged another $15 billion in 
     support; the U.S. is the largest contributor.
       Given the abysmal results achieved so far, isn't it time to 
     re-evaluate U.S. foreign policy goals in Afghanistan? 
     Recently, a group of U.S. generals and former U.S. 
     ambassadors to Afghanistan announced that a ``generational 
     commitment'' of assistance was still required of the American 
     people toward Afghanistan to see it securely to the end goal 
     of . . . what? Nobody can give a coherent answer to that 
     question, indicating that we have seriously lost our way.
       Most Americans have forgotten about Afghanistan (or no 
     longer want to hear about it) and are not aware of the 
     ongoing costs in American lives and resources. It's time for 
     the next American president to drastically change direction 
     and explain it to the American people.
       That direction should be to start the pullout of 
     Afghanistan after 15 years of failure to achieve any lasting 
     policy objectives there. The U.S. should immediately stop the 
     multitude of civilian ``nation-building'' programs that have 
     been so costly and failed to achieve their unrealistic goals. 
     U.S. funding for the Afghan army and police forces should be 
     put on a diminishing schedule that would stop entirely after 
     two years, forcing Afghanistan to finally stand or fall on 
     its own.
       It's time to let go of Afghanistan and end the 15-year 
     drain on American lives and resources.

  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I ask God to bless our men and women in 
uniform, and I ask God to continue to bless America.

                          ____________________