Afghanistan

Floor Speech

Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I am on the floor again to talk about the waste of American taxpayers' money in Afghanistan.

Just last week, we in the House Armed Services Committee heard testimony from Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, along with other DOD officials, regarding the Department's request for an additional $58.6 billion to be used overseas, primarily in Afghanistan.

While speaking to Mr. Work, I mentioned the following three headlines, which, I believe, accurately describe the American situation in Afghanistan: the headline from CBS News, ``Is the Pentagon wasting taxpayer money in Afghanistan?''; from the Center for Public Integrity, ``The U.S. military was no match for Afghanistan's corruption''; then from the World Affairs Journal, ``Money Pit: The Monstrous Failure of U.S. Aid to Afghanistan.'' All of these reports detail a shocking misuse of the American taxpayers' dollar with little to no accountability.

My question to Mr. Work was this:

How can the Pentagon, in good conscience, request this money given the waste, fraud, and abuse that we continue to see with American resources in Afghanistan?

Mr. Speaker, this is money that we could be using right here in America to care for our many wounded veterans, to rebuild our country, our schools, our roads, our infrastructure, and yet, every day, we continue to spend billions and billions overseas with, as I said earlier, just little accountability.

As my good friend Pat Buchanan has said: ``Is it not a symptom of senility to be borrowing from the world so we can defend the world?'' Let me repeat that one more time: ``Is it not a symptom of senility to be borrowing from the world so we can defend the world?''

I would even insert the word ``stupidity'' instead of ``senility,'' and it would sound this way: ``Is it not a symptom of stupidity to be borrowing from the world so we can defend the world?''

Mr. Speaker, beside me, I have a poster of a young Army soldier who lost both legs and an arm. This was from the front page of our Raleigh paper, Mr. Speaker--the News & Observer--about 5 years ago. Why do I have it on the floor today? Four weeks ago, I went to Walter Reed at Bethesda. I saw three Army soldiers from Fort Bragg, which is not in my district, but I chatted with them. All three had lost one leg in Afghanistan. My main purpose of going to Walter Reed was to see two marines from Camp Lejeune who had been severely wounded, but I thank God I had a chance to talk to the three soldiers and to thank them for their gift of their legs for our country.

As I went over to the young marine from Camp Lejeune, who was 23, he was like this soldier in the poster. The young marine had lost both legs and an arm. I looked in the face of his father, who probably was 50 or 51 years of age, and all I saw was pain and worry and trouble in the eyes of the father because, like this young soldier who had lost both legs and an arm, you can only hope the best for their futures.

The second marine I saw from Camp Lejeune had stepped on a 40-pound IED and had lost both legs. He has a wife--I did not meet her--and an 8-month-old baby girl whom I did not meet, but he was very proud of his wife and his child. I wonder what his future is going to be? I can only hope the best--that God will look after all of these men and women who have given so much for our country.

It brings me back to this, Mr. Speaker: Congress needs to have debates and to stop wasting money in Afghanistan, because it costs our soldiers and their families so much--the lives, the limbs--and there is nothing we have to show for it but pain and a waste of money.

May God bless America.

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