Providing for Consideration of House Concurrent Resolution 301, Pakistan War Powers Resolution

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Let me, first of all, begin by saying I'm not sure whether the underlying resolution introduced by Mr. Kucinich is necessarily the right way to approach this issue, but he and Mr. Paul are reflecting the anxiety, the growing anxiety, the growing fear of a lot of Members of Congress and a lot of people throughout this country that the United States of America is continuously getting sucked into wars that have no end, wars that are costing us dearly in terms of the lives of our brave men and women who serve in uniform, and it is costing us dearly in terms of our treasury. We're going bankrupt.

People talk about the deficit all the time around here, but the reality is that these wars, by and large, are not paid for--the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq. It's all going onto our credit card, and it's going to be paid for by my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids. We are going bankrupt by the wars that we are fighting.

And I think they also reflect this feeling that we seem unable to make the necessary adjustments to our policy when they appear to not be working in the way we would like them to work. In Afghanistan, for example, we've been there for nearly 10 years. And the WikiLeaks documents that were published all over the world yesterday remind us that, notwithstanding all the sacrifices of the American soldiers and their families and all the money we have poured into that country, that we don't have any reliable partners.

The Afghan Government is corrupt and incompetent. The President of that country oversaw an election where they stuffed the ballot boxes, and our men and women are sacrificing their lives to prop that government up. We don't have a reliable partner in the Afghan police or in the Afghan military. And as we learned from these documents--again, it isn't new, but it was emphasized by the release of these documents--that we don't have a reliable partner, by and large, with certain elements of Pakistan. That does not mean that we should walk away from Pakistan, and I want to agree with much of what my colleague from California (Mr. Dreier) said.

I believe it is important for the United States to support civilian institutions and to support democratic movements in Pakistan. I want the civilian government in Pakistan to be able to have control over the security forces and the military forces in a way that we believe that they are actually in control.

So I think this debate that we are going to have here today on the Pakistan War Powers Act is important. I'm not quite sure that this is the way we should deal with Pakistan with the underlying resolution, but I will conclude by making reference to another measure we are going to be voting on here today, and that is the supplemental war funding bill.

In light of what was released yesterday, in light of all the questions that have been raised, it seems to me that it is inappropriate for us to vote ``yes'' on a blank check for this administration to do whatever they want in Afghanistan. I have great respect for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State and the President of the United States, but I have to tell you I am deeply troubled that, with all that is coming out, that we are not doing hearings, we're not doing our oversight. We're basically going to be asked to vote for a $33 billion package--all borrowed money--and kick the can down the road and let's hope when we come back in September that maybe things will get better.

We were told almost 1 year ago that we would never have another supplemental. Well, here we are doing another supplemental and we have a policy in Afghanistan that is not clearly defined. And so I understand the anxiety and the frustration of Mr. Paul and Mr. Kucinich. I share that anxiety and frustration as well. But it seems to me that we in Congress have a responsibility, too. These wars are not just the administration's wars. They are our wars, too. We fund them. We're the ones who go along with it. We're the ones who decide whether we're going to condition aid or whether we're going to withhold aid, and I think we should be doing a better job.

We have known for a long time that the Pakistan intelligence agencies have been undercutting our efforts in Afghanistan. They have put our soldiers at risk. We have known that for a long time, yet what have we done? So this may be a time for us to raise some of these issues, raise some of these questions, hopefully prompt more Members of this body to get involved in this debate, but also to send a signal to the administration that we really need to reevaluate what we're doing. We need to rethink some of these strategies. And if we are going in the wrong direction, we need to have the courage to change course if necessary.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I would urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question and on the rule.

I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

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