National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes.

Too many people have died in Afghanistan. Since January, I have attended three funerals in my district alone of young men who have sacrificed their lives there. Tens of thousands more have been wounded. And the suicide rate among our veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq is soaring. There is no clear mission. The Karzai government is corrupt. We continue to borrow money to pay for this war. We need to rethink what we're doing in Afghanistan. It's time to define the plan to bring our uniformed men and women home to their families and to their communities, where they belong.

Mr. Chairman, this is the longest war in our Nation's history. It's no longer about al Qaeda. I've met with our troops in Afghanistan. I've met with them after they have come home. They are incredible. Politicians put them into harm's way. And we now have an obligation to get them safely home.

President Obama has promised a drawdown of U.S. troops in July. Now we hear that might just be a token drawdown. This amendment, Mr. Chairman, and the vote on this amendment can send the President a clear signal of support for a meaningful drawdown of troops. Help him do what the American people want him to do: bring our troops home and invest in America.

We need to safeguard our national security. We all agree with that. But many of our greatest problems aren't halfway around the world; they are halfway down the block. And rather than nation building in Afghanistan, we need do some more nation building right here in the United States.

Mr. Chairman, this is not a partisan issue. It's about doing what's right for our troops and for the Nation. If you have ever once thought that we need to do something different in Afghanistan, that it's time to rethink our policy, that we need to bring our troops home to their loved ones, then this is the amendment that you need to support. I ask my colleagues to vote for this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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