Hearing of the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee of the House Foregin Affairs Committee - Strategic Chaos and Taliban Resurgence in Afghanistan

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REP. JOE WILSON (R-SC): Thank you, Chairman Ackerman, for holding this hearing on Afghanistan and our mission there. I'm particularly happy to see Lieutenant General David Barno, the former commander at Fort Jackson in South Carolina who conducted himself with great distinction and certainly set a high standard for the young people who are being trained at Fort Jackson.

Let me begin as co-chair of the Afghan Caucus to indicate that I am forever grateful for the hard work and dedication of our military men and women who are serving in Afghanistan. With over six visits to Afghanistan including codel Costa with Congressman Pence I am -- have seen firsthand our troops including four quarterly visits with members of the 218th Combat Brigade, which is my former National Guard unit that I served in for 28 years. It's being led by Brigadier General Bob Livingston.

I know so many of the people, Mr. Chairman, who are serving in that brigade. They are dedicated. They are committed. They're concluding their rotation there and they feel very, very good about indeed providing for training of the police and army. Their courage and professionalism is inspiring. While much progress has been made there remain many challenges we face in Afghanistan. The Taliban and their al Qaeda allies are dedicated to perpetuating a violent and tyrannical society upon the freedom-loving people of Afghanistan.

We cannot and must not permit them to reestablish a safe haven in that nation that would allow them to plan attacks against American families and our allies around the world. From my visits with our troops in Afghanistan I've seen the progress that we've made in training Afghani police and military. I've seen the hard work of the coalition forces and the Afghani government to build that nation's infrastructure. We are creating the foundation of a society that will no longer be a breeding ground for radical extremism.

We must remain vigilant and dedicated to our mission in Afghanistan. In the global war on terrorism there are many fronts and many missions that demand our attention. The men and women of our armed forces will not take their eye off the ball. They're committed to winning this war and we should support their efforts. I am convinced the best way to protect American families at home is to defeat terrorists overseas. Again, I want to thank Chairman Ackerman and my fellow committee members for this opportunity and look forward to the testimony from our witnesses.

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REP. WILSON: Additionally, I had the extraordinary opportunity to accompany Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee to Afghanistan. Our first visit four years ago, it was really shocking to see the level of destruction of Kabul. The rubble was right up to the side of the road. And then every time I've been back, and I've been back six times now, and I was there a month ago, the rubble's been moved a little bit further, a little bit further, and now it's been removed. For the tenth poorest country on earth, I'm startled at the level of vehicular traffic. It actually seemed -- and the level of paving, I've seen the roads go from non-existent to really very first class. In addition, I've had the opportunity to visit provincial reconstruction teams in Khost, at Bagram, at Jalalabad twice. So I have seen significant efforts being made.

My main interest though, because of my National Guard unit, which is the largest deployment from South Carolina since World War II -- we have 1600 troops serving, and they have been now for nine months, they have been working with the police, with the army -- I really thought they would be going to say Camp Phoenix or a central facility to train and then send the police and army out, but actually they are themselves spread all over the country serving as mentors.

How would you access the efforts being made to train the -- and I'll ask General Barno first and then we can pass it along -- how would you access the efforts being made?

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REP. WILSON: Thank you all for your testimony. And I do want to point out that one of the attributes of the National Guard, and I appreciate Congressman Costa arranging our most recent visit to Afghanistan, but in the National Guard nearly twenty percent of our personnel there are local sheriff's deputies and police officers at home. So they've had an extraordinary background of civilian acquired skills to work and try to help the training and I'm again, obviously very proud of what the National Guard has done. Thank you very much.

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