Issue Position: The War in Afghanistan

Issue Position

The brave men and women in our armed services have done everything that has been asked of them, performing admirably while making deep sacrifices for their mission and their country. We are eternally grateful for these sacrifices and must honor them by ensuring that our veterans are always taken care of.

With Osama bin Laden gone and no longer able to threaten the United States, and the Taliban out of power, David believes the American people are rightfully concerned about the cost and the wisdom of sustaining continued military efforts in Afghanistan. Current estimates state that ongoing American involvement in Afghanistan costs taxpayers between $8-10 billion a month. Much of this goes towards supporting the construction of schools, roads, and bridges, and the training of police and military forces. Instead of spending billions of dollars per month constructing schools, bridges, roads and hospitals in Afghanistan, David believes we should make those critical investments in our own country. It is ultimately the responsibility of the Afghan people to build, operate, and maintain their own civilian and military operations. The long-term security interests of the United States, and stability in that region of the world, will only be advanced when the people of Afghanistan assume these responsibilities.

In 2011, David led a bipartisan group of his House colleagues in a letter to President Obama requesting that he put forth a plan for a larger drawdown of troops and an accelerated timetable for the U.S. military to withdraw from Afghanistan. David asked the President to accelerate his withdrawal plan so that the 33,000 so-called "surge troops" be redeployed by the end of this calendar year; with the additional goal of developing a plan to bring all of our remaining troops home safely and honorably by the end of next year.

During Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, David questioned the effectiveness of ongoing American spending in Afghanistan. David also offered an amendment to the Fiscal year 2012 Department of Defense Appropriations bill, which would have struck $475 million in funding for the Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund so that we can reinvest that money in our own infrastructure.

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