Ending the Afghanistan War

Statement

On Wednesday I joined a bipartisan group of House members at a news conference in support of expedited withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. We also joined together to send the President a letter discussing this important topic. Earlier this month President Obama visited Afghanistan to sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement. As he stated at Bagram Air Base, "this time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end."

The core of al Qaeda has been greatly reduced in size and ability to attack Americans. Our brave men and women in uniform have done everything that we have asked of them. With over 17,000 dead and wounded U.S. servicemen and women, and long term costs estimated at $4 trillion for the past decade of unfunded wars, an overwhelming majority of Americans want to bring the war in Afghanistan to an expedited end.

While many of us would prefer an immediate full withdrawal from Afghanistan, there is broad, bipartisan consensus in Congress and across America that it is time to accelerate the transition from U.S. to full Afghan control. And since President Obama will soon be attending the NATO summit in Chicago, we have asked him to announce an accelerated transition of security responsibility to the Afghan government and security forces as soon as possible.

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