Issue Position: Defense & Foreign Policy

Issue Position

Iraq
Congresswoman Speier believes we went to war in Iraq under false pretenses, but our troops did what we sent them to do. After the failed policies of the Bush Administration, she is glad to see that President Obama is implementing policies to remove all U.S. combat troops out of Iraq, including a definitive timetable to withdraw all remaining U.S. forces by the end of 2011. Our country made great sacrifices in this war. Over 4,400 brave American soldiers lost their lives and we spent more than $750 billion in taxpayer money fighting this conflict alone. Speier believes now is the time for our troops to leave and for the Iraqis to bring peace to their own country.

Afghanistan
The Afghanistan war is now the longest running war in United States history. It is also an unwinnable war that is costing more than $100 billion dollars per year at a time when we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend. In the wake of the September 11th attacks, the United States went into Afghanistan to eliminate a glaring threat to our national security: the safe haven and protection provided for Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda by the ruling Taliban. Intelligence officials now estimate that there are fewer than 100 al Qaeda members left in Afghanistan. Speier believes the killing of Bin Laden in Pakistan by our talented and brave Seal team reinforces the lack of a clear mission for our military in Afghanistan. She wants to bring our troops home and focus on the strategic mission of rooting out our enemies who threaten to carry out terrorist attacks and stop fighting counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq that are doomed to fail.

Speier supports bringing our troops home from Afghanistan as quickly and safely as possible and changing our policy to a counterterrorism strategy that focuses on al Qaeda around the world. To that end, she is a co-sponsor of H.R. 651 that would prohibit the permanent basing or military presence of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan; provide, no later than one year after the date on which such agreement is entered into, for the complete redeployment from Afghanistan of the U.S. Armed Forces and Department of Defense (DOD) civilian employees and contractors; and establish that the temporary presence of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan is at the request of the government of Afghanistan. She has also co-sponsored H.R. 780 that would limit funding to that necessary to bring our troops safely home, and H.R. 1735 that would require the President to submit a plan to Congress for the safe, orderly, and expeditious redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan.

She has also voted in favor of amendments on the House floor that would require President Obama to submit a plan to Congress outlining the timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan. These amendments would have also required the President to begin the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by July 2011, as the President originally proposed.

Iran
Speier strongly believe that the current regime in Iran is a profound threat to U.S. national security interests; not only because of their nuclear ambitions, but because of the military assistance they provide armed groups in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran continues to ignore the international community on the issue of nuclear proliferation and has pledged to build new nuclear facilities. The regime also has engaged in pervasive attacks on its own people attempting to exercise their democratic rights.

In an effort to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions and regional destabilization efforts, Speier has supported international sanctions against the Iranian government. Most recently, she cosponsored and voted in favor of H.R. 2194, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, and co-sponsored H.R. 1905, the Iran Threat Reduction Act which would strengthen the underlying Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) and Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Accountability and Divestment Act by imposing an array of new penalties aimed at persuading Iran to change its conduct. Targets of the Act range from human rights abusers in Iran to business entities involved in energy transactions with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It would place the most restrictive sanctions on Iran to date.

Defense Spending
For years we have watched as Department of Defense spending has skyrocketed. Currently, it accounts for more than 60 percent of discretionary spending. Speier voted against the $680 billion 2012 Defense Authorization bill because the Defense Department is the only part of our budget the Republicans are unwilling to subject to cuts. In fact, this represents an increase in spending. Much of this growth is due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but exorbitant spending on programs of questionable value has further bloated military spending. One example is the V-22 Osprey, an aircraft no closer to being battle-ready after nearly three decades of development. This despite the fact that it has cost more than $20 billion and has taken the lives of 30 crewmembers. Missile defense is another money pit that has yielded little benefit and has angered numerous foreign governments.

In addition, the bill contained additional unreasonable hurdles for the ending of the military's destructive Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, failed to include a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces in Afghanistan, and included an expansion of the existing 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, allowing the President to take military action against an undefined enemy in any country at any time, giving unchecked authority to current and future Administrations to wage war without Congressional approval.

With a mounting fiscal crisis, we need to rein in defense spending and vastly expand diplomatic efforts to repair our badly damaged image abroad.

Foreign Assistance
The United States is continuing to restore its image after years of bad decisions that have damaged our standing throughout the world and placed our national and economic security at grave risk. Speier believes the need to modernize our foreign assistance programs to better address the global challenges of the 21st century, including terrorism, poverty, pandemic disease, climate change, energy security, failing states, food insecurity, slowed economic growth, and population and migration issues, has never been clearer than now. Foreign aid makes up less than 1% of our budget, but is one of our most effective policy tools.

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