[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9942]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
        IT IS TIME TO GET OUT OF OUR 16-YEAR WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, in one of the Capitol Hill 
newspapers today is this cartoon, a cartoon showing a general with 
several stars on his shoulder, saying: ``Sixteen years of blood, bombs, 
bullets, and devastation, and no one's winning,'' talking about our 16-
year war in Afghanistan. And then the cartoon shows a very greedy-
looking man holding a briefcase called War Incorporated, with all kinds 
of cash sticking out of both sides and with this greedy smile saying, 
``Oh, I wouldn't say that.'' And that is what this war is now all 
about, this 16-year war. It is being held up and continued only because 
so many people and companies are making money out of it.
  Just yesterday, in The Washington Times, there was this story 
entitled, ``War and Waste,'' and I would like to read some of that 
story.
  ``Those are the basics for outfitting an Afghan soldier. But in that 
simple uniform combination are the threads of two troubling stories--
one about the waste of millions in American taxpayer dollars''--
actually, it is many billions--``the other about the perils of propping 
up a partner army in a seemingly endless war.
  ``Together these tales help explain why some in Congress''--and it 
should be everyone in Congress--``why some in Congress question the 
wisdom of investing even more resources in Afghanistan, nearly 16 years 
after the United States invaded the Taliban-ruled country in response 
to the al-Qaida attacks of September 11, 2001. The Army general who 
runs the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan calls it a stalemate. Defense 
Secretary Jim Mattis says the U.S. is `not winning.'''
  And I will continue with this story: And, sadly, the only Americans 
who are being killed in recent weeks have been killed by the Afghan 
soldiers who we are paying and who we are there trying to help out.
  Continuing this story: ``The long war has generated repeated examples 
of wasted funds, which may be inevitable in a country such as 
Afghanistan, where the military has been built from scratch, is plagued 
with corruption and relies almost completely on U.S. money for even the 
most basic things, including salaries and uniforms. Among the costs 
rarely noted publicly: The Pentagon has spent $1 billion over the past 
3 years to help recruit and retain Afghan soldiers.''
  And then, I continue with the story: ``The Pentagon has not disputed 
the gist of findings by its Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, 
John Sopko, that the U.S. spent as much as $28 million more than 
necessary over 10 years on uniforms for Afghan soldiers with a 
camouflage `forest' pattern that'' is totally ``inappropriate for the 
largely desert battlefield.
  ``In a report released this past week, Sopko's office said the 
Pentagon paid to license a propriety camouflage pattern even though it 
owns patterns it could have used for free.''
  The Pentagon spent $28 million to get something that it could have 
gotten for free.
  ``The choice,'' it said, was based on the seemingly offhand fashion 
preference of a single Afghan official.
  ```This is not an isolated event,' Sopko said in a telephone 
interview. The U.S., he said, has been `in a mad rush to spend money 
like a drunken sailor on a weekend furlough.' It reflects a pattern, he 
said, of spending too much money, too quickly, with too little 
oversight and too little accountability.''
  And he continues, Mr. Sopko: ```This was more than just a bad fashion 
move,' he said. `It cost the taxpayer millions of dollars' more than 
might have been necessary.
  ``Money is rarely part of the debate over what the United States 
should do differently or better in Afghanistan, and thus the 
accumulating costs are often overlooked.
  ``Since 2002, the U.S. has spent $66 billion on Afghan security 
forces alone''--in addition to many, many billions more on other things 
in trying to do nation building in Afghanistan, which we never should 
have been doing in the first place.
  ``In recent years, this spending has grown''--listen to that. In 
recent years, this spending has grown over the $66 billion.
  ``Stephen Biddle, a professor of political science and international 
affairs at George Washington University, said the money wasted on 
camouflage uniforms is symptomatic of a broader problem of official 
corruption that has sapped the strength and spirit of too many Afghan 
soldiers.''
  And he added this: ```The real problem in Afghanistan is not, ``Can 
we get a rational decision about which camouflage design it should 
be.'' The real problem in Afghanistan is that cronyism and 
corruption'''--that word is in that story several times--```corruption 
in the government and the security forces saps the combat motivation of 
the soldiers.'''
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to end this very wasteful war and get 
out of Afghanistan.

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