Future Involvement In Afghanistan

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Thank you very much, and I want to thank you and my other colleagues here for taking the time to come to the floor to talk about this issue. We are at war, and there is very little debate about this war. I think it is important and it is incumbent upon every Member of this House to encourage the fullest possible debate on our policy in Afghanistan.

We are told that the President any day now or any week is going to come up with a new policy. There are rumors that it will include an increase in the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

That needs to be debated.

Part of our job is to be a check and balance on the executive branch. And it is our constituents who are going to war. It is our constituents who are dying over there. It is our constituents who are getting wounded over there and coming back to the United States and requiring a lifetime of care. And we need to make sure they get the care that they deserve. They have earned that.

I am very concerned about our policy in Afghanistan. I'm concerned for a whole number of reasons. I'm concerned because I don't think there is any definition to our policy. Depending on whom you talk to, you get a different answer as to what our goal is. Originally, our goal was to get al Qaeda. After September 11, I, and I think virtually every Member of this House and every Member of the Senate, voted to use force to go after al Qaeda, who were responsible for the terrible atrocities of September 11. It was the right vote then, and I think it's the right vote now.

But al Qaeda, which used to be in Afghanistan, has now moved to Pakistan. We are told by our military experts that there are no al Qaeda in Afghanistan, maybe less than 100, some say. Well, do we need 100,000 American troops to go after less than 100 members of al Qaeda? And if that is not our goal, then this is an example of mission creep where our mission has suddenly enlarged itself without any kind of input from this Congress.

Now some say we need to have more troops there to make sure that al Qaeda never comes back to Afghanistan. Well, al Qaeda has not only been in Afghanistan, they have been in Sudan, they have been in Somalia, they have been in Yemen. They have been in south Florida. Do we want to deploy more troops all over there?

I'm concerned because there is not a clearly defined mission. When I ran for Congress, I said I would never vote to send anybody to war without a clearly defined mission. That's a beginning, a middle, a transition period and an end. I have asked over and over of the previous administration and this administration, At what point does our military contribution to the political solution that you say will happen in Afghanistan, at what point does our military contribution to that political solution come to an end? And I usually get, ``Good question.'' I don't think anybody knows.

I think that that's a problem, and that's something that we need to address.

Let me just say I'm also concerned because Afghanistan is not accustomed to a centralized government. Well, we have helped give them a centralized government. And the government of Mr. Karzai is corrupt and incompetent. By conservative estimates, we are told that in the last election, 30 percent of his vote was fraudulent. Thirty percent of his vote was fraudulent. And then there was going to be a run-off election, and then the opposition candidate, I think understandably, said, I don't see how you can put together a credible election in a couple of weeks.

And he backed out. So here is our President by default--here's the President by default, who is about to be sworn in again, and the examples of corruption and fraud in his government, the examples of the Afghan government using American taxpayer money for things that they're not intended to be used for--basically stealing from the American taxpayer. The examples of that are too numerous to mention in this debate.

Mr. KAGEN. Will the gentleman yield for a question?

Mr. McGOVERN. I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. KAGEN. Mr. McGovern, is there any word or any sentence or phrase that the newly ``elected'' President of Afghanistan could say to convince you that the fraud is behind him, he didn't mean it?

Mr. McGOVERN. The answer is no. He's had his chance. He blew it. I wouldn't trust that government to tell me the correct time after what they have done over the last 8 years. We have been supporting this system for 8 years. This war just didn't start. We have been there for 8 years. At some point, enough is enough. The idea of supporting a government that is corrupt and incompetent and saying that we're going to keep this government in power, we're going to help support them, our men and women are going to die for this government, and then at some point magically everything is supposed to be perfect, that we hand over everything back to this government that has stolen from the American taxpayers, this government that is guilty of fraud--I think that this is a mistake. And 57 Members of this House, bipartisan Members of this House, sent a letter to President Obama saying ``no'' to the increase in American forces there. And I think there's a lot more that feel that way. I'd like to insert this into the Congressional Record.

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Mr. McGOVERN. I agree with the gentleman. I want to again also thank our friend, Mr. Kagen, for organizing this, and, again, my friend WALTER JONES, who's been unbelievably eloquent on the need for there to be more debate on this issue--I appreciate that--and my friend, Mr. Paul, for all of his work.

The gentleman raises, I think, a very important point, and that is that there's a cost to this war. There's a cost in terms of human life. My friend is a doctor. He has seen firsthand the trauma that war can inflict on our soldiers. We have all been to Walter Reed Hospital. We have visited many young men and women who have been wounded in this conflict. But there's also a cost, as he mentions, in terms of dollars and cents.

I always find it somewhat ironic that we have debates on this floor about health care or child care or feeding the hungry or making sure people have adequate housing or even in terms of giving our veterans more. People always get up and say, Boy, we can't spend any more; we can't spend any more. We have to worry about our debt and our deficit.

Well, where is the outrage over the fact that we have spent all this money on these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan off budget? It's all gone on our credit card. I introduced a bill along with Mr. Obey and Mr. Murtha last year, a couple of years ago, saying that we should have a war tax. It got shot down in a bipartisan way. But I think that we need to understand that in these wars it is only really a tiny sliver of our country that is actually sacrificing--our soldiers and their families. The rest of us are being asked to do nothing. But understand one thing. These wars are adding incredible amounts to our deficit and our debt. People need to understand there's a cost here. And we need to have that debate.

I'll just tell you one other thing, if I can. Look, I, too, am grateful that the President is deliberating on this issue. I wish the deliberation had occurred before we had the surge that we had a few months ago, because I think it was important to have this debate before any more soldiers got sent there. But I am grateful that he is deliberating. And we don't know what his policy will be. But I'm going to tell you I am personally offended by the fact that the President of Afghanistan is openly taking on the United States, criticizing the United States, for what our motives may be and what our role may be over there when we are supporting him and he is guilty of fraud, he is guilty of corruption. If he were in this country, there would be a special investigation and he would go to jail. This is the extent of the corruption over there. And at some point you have to say that this doesn't work.

We have to ask: Why are we there while al Qaeda's in Pakistan, no longer in Afghanistan? What are we trying to do? I don't think it is worth spending the money or sacrificing the lives to defend a corrupt regime. And I think that is where we are right now.

Mr. Karzai has had 8 years to show what he is about. That's why when you asked me before whether if he adds anything to his speech about finding corruption, whether I will believe him. No, I will not, because he's had 8 years to prove what he's about. And we have had good members of our Foreign Service community who have resigned over the fact that this government is so corrupt.

So, enough. We need to develop a policy that has an exit strategy and it includes a flexible withdrawal strategy.

I want to help the Afghan people. I'm not against development aid. I think we should try to help them any way we can, in a way that is sustainable, in a way that works, and in a way that they want. But let's understand that there is no military solution to be had here, and expanding our military footprint will only allow the Taliban greater propaganda points for recruiting and will cost us dearly. So enough. It's time to reevaluate this policy. It is time to figure out a way to end our military involvement, and we need to do so in a sensible and thoughtful way.

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