IV 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 423 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that in order to increase 
and sustain pressure on the Taliban, their terrorist allies and supporters, 
enable an expeditious and safe withdrawal of United States and NATO 
soldiers, reducing the great cost in lives and money, the United States 
should empower and recognize Afghanistan’s ethnic diversity through 
free local and provincial elections and replace the present failed central-
ized system of government with a federal political structure that ensured 
the full participation of all ethnic communities. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 5, 2011 
Mr. ROHRABACHER (for himself and Mr. GOHMERT) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
in order to increase and sustain pressure on the Taliban, 
their terrorist allies and supporters, enable an expedi-
tious and safe withdrawal of United States and NATO 
soldiers, reducing the great cost in lives and money, 
the United States should empower and recognize Af-
ghanistan’s ethnic diversity through free local and pro-
vincial elections and replace the present failed centralized 
system of government with a federal political structure 
that ensured the full participation of all ethnic commu-
nities. 
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•HRES 423 IH 
Whereas Afghanistan is a diverse country of minorities, in-
cluding Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Turkmens, 
Aimaq, Baluch, and Nuristani; 
Whereas decades of civil war and more than a century of re-
pression and discrimination in Afghanistan has resulted 
in distrust, fear, and extremism and the rise of the intol-
erant and chauvinistic Taliban who opposed all other eth-
nic communities; 
Whereas supporting highly centralized political structures and 
leadership in Afghanistan has led to widespread abuse, 
discrimination, corruption, and lack of local participation 
and support and anti-democratic approaches; 
Whereas the Taliban, aligned with al Qaeda, during its reign 
of terror in Afghanistan intensified policies of ethnic ret-
ribution and discrimination particularly against the eth-
nic communities of northern, central, and western Af-
ghanistan; 
Whereas the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies viewed ethnic di-
versity and political pluralism as the greatest threat to its 
political domination and extremist beliefs; 
Whereas the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies used highly cen-
tralized governmental structures in Kabul to collectively 
punish Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic communities, enforc-
ing policies of ethnic discrimination, cleansing, and ret-
ribution; 
Whereas the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies, after having 
brutally repressed Afghanistan’s diverse cultures and peo-
ples, particularly the non-Pashtun peoples, launched a 
global terrorist war aimed particularly at the United 
States, leading to the attacks on September 11, 2001; 
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•HRES 423 IH 
Whereas the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies were defeated by 
an alliance of the northern peoples of Afghanistan, most-
ly Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazaras, collectively known as the 
Northern Alliance, fighting for their freedom and sup-
ported by a small number of United States Special 
Forces and directed air attacks by the United States Air 
Force; 
Whereas the defeat of the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies in 
northern Afghanistan led to the collapse of the terrorist 
Taliban regime and the end to Taliban and al Qaeda re-
pression and terrorism; 
Whereas in defeating the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies, 
thousands of brave fighters from northern Afghanistan 
were killed but only one United States citizen lost his life, 
demonstrating that the people of Afghanistan were will-
ing and able to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda when they 
were fighting for their families, homes, and freedom; 
Whereas the vital role of Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic commu-
nities in defeating extremism and establishing a stable 
Afghanistan free of ethnic prejudice was ignored by the 
international community, which instead insisted on a 
highly centralized form of government built around one 
strong leader which has led to corruption and a repeating 
of past mistakes; 
Whereas western support for a flawed constitutional process 
which concentrated vast power in the hands of the Presi-
dent including the direct appointment without confirma-
tion or consultation of all local, district, and provincial 
officials, including mayors, governors, and police chiefs, 
rejecting the basic principles of representative democracy 
of local communities electing their own leaders; 
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•HRES 423 IH 
Whereas by supporting a highly centralized government in 
Kabul, the present policy has repeated the mistakes of 
the past, including during the Communist and nationalist 
periods, leading to massive corruption, abuse of power, 
ethnic discrimination, and the disconnection and alien-
ation of the people of Afghanistan from the government; 
and 
Whereas 9 years of efforts to build a national police force and 
national military to protect Afghanistan have fallen vic-
tim to a failed centralized political system and the wide-
spread corruption and cronyism it engenders, resulting in 
involvement of ever more United States and North Atlan-
tic Treaty Organization (NATO) ground forces and fi-
nancial resources, from no more than 5,000 troops 8 
years ago to 130,000 troops today: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) the United States Government should— 
(A) engage in broadening the regional dia-
logue on Afghanistan to include countries that 
have been supportive of the United States effort 
to defeat the Taliban such as India, Russia, Uz-
bekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, shift-
ing it from its Pakistani focus; 
(B) support and encourage a representa-
tive, decentralized, democratic federal political 
system in Afghanistan that shifts more power 
to regions, provinces, and districts and away 
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•HRES 423 IH 
from a corrupt presidency, recognizes Afghani-
stan’s ethnic regional and cultural diversity, 
and promotes mutual respect, trust, and good-
will between the various ethnic communities 
and regions of the country; 
(C) support urgent constitutional reform 
that will enable local, district, and provincial 
election of mayors, police chiefs, and governors 
which would bring democracy closer to the peo-
ple of Afghanistan and encourage trust between 
Afghanistan’s different ethnic groups, con-
taining the Taliban insurgency and its desire to 
expand beyond the Pashtun regions of the 
country; 
(D) support the establishment of trained 
and properly regulated regional militias as well 
as a national army to fight the Taliban insur-
gency, particularly utilizing the natural allies of 
the United States who helped defeat the 
Taliban in 2001 in order to enable the reduc-
tion of the number of United States troops; 
(E) undermine the extremism of the 
Taliban insurgency and its al Qaeda allies by 
drawing the people of Afghanistan back into the 
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•HRES 423 IH 
fight by supporting a government that truly 
represents them; and 
(F) actively oppose the inclusion of the 
Taliban in the Government of Afghanistan; and 
(2) the United States should abandon its sup-
port for the present failed centralized system of gov-
ernment that has led to enormous corruption, the 
abuse of power, the growing drug trade, ethnic 
domination which has enabled extremism, and a 
growing insurgency to take root again. 
Æ 
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