Date: 2010-03-10
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Id like to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. on Sunday the Iraqi people went to the polls to vote in their latest national parliamentary elections. Millions of Iraqis voted at thousands of voting stations throughout the country. The democratic process is succeeding in Iraq. The people there. despite extraordinarily difficult challenges. are able to express themselves in free elections. Sunday was a good day for the future of Iraq. Those elections would not have taken place but for the decision of President Bush in 2007 to send over 20.000 surge troops to Iraq in order to establish. "a unified democratic federal Iraq that can govern itself. defend itself. and sustain itself." Those elections would not have been possible but for the sacrifices of our troops and their families. Just 4 months ago. Mr. Speaker. President Obama announced a surge strategy for Afghanistan. He committed 30.000 additional forces to a counterinsurgency strategy that I believe will help to strengthen the government in Afghanistans security forces. as the surge did in Iraq. Since President Obamas announcement. weve seen considerable results. For example. last month. our troops began what is known as the Marjah offensive. The joint offensive with the Afghan National Army and coalition partners has pushed the Taliban out of Marjah and has allowed the Afghan government to take control of significant areas that were previously controlled by the Taliban. This offensive is what General David Petraeus. the commander of the United States Central Command. has described as the "initial salvo" in a 12- to 18month campaign to defeat the Taliban. Now I have had and I continue to have. Mr. Speaker. disagreements with policies of President Obama. but I have said privately. I have said publicly. and I reiterate here today. that in the case of Afghanistan. President Obama has demonstrated great responsibility and a sense of the national security interest of the United States. He deserves our support. Just as our military is making tangible progress. like the Marjah offensive demonstrates. just as this is occurring. many of our colleagues in the majority party now feel that it is time to withdraw from Afghanistan. The resolution that we are set to debate today would require the President to withdraw our troops in 30 days. I believe that that would be precipitous. I believe that precipitously withdrawing our troops would be reckless. I believe it would allow the Taliban to regain control of Afghanistan and thereby provide criminal groups such as al Qaeda with carte blanche to run terrorist training camps and plan terrorist attacks against the United States and our allies. I would remind my colleagues that it was the safe harbor and support that the Taliban gave bin Laden which allowed him to plan the September 11. 2001. attacks from Afghanistan against this country. A reconstituted Taliban will undoubtedly do the same and will pose a significant and grave risk to the national security of the United States. I believe. Mr. Speaker. that we must never allow Afghanistan to once again fall into the hands of terrorists whose sole purpose is to destroy the United States and to kill innocent civilians. Precipitous withdrawal would not only be dangerous. I believe. to our national security. but would constitute a mortal blow to the Afghan people. who are relying on our support. Although they have far to go. Afghanistan has made demonstrable progress. But if this resolution were to become U.S. policy. all the improvements made by the Afghan people would disappear. Afghans would no longer be given the chance to vote in elections. The Taliban would rule by the edict of terror. It would mean the return of a nightmarish tyranny to Afghanistan. Women would see the rights they have gained disappear as the Taliban once again made women noncitizens and banned young girls. who for the first time are learning to read. from schools. Mr. Speaker. I believe that now is not the time to turn our backs on the Afghan people. It is not the time to counter the mission of our troops. especially when they are engaged in the first major offensive of President Obamas reaffirmed counterinsurgency strategy. Let us send a message to the terrorists that the United States is committed to our mission to prevent the return to power of the Taliban. Let us soundly defeat this resolution. I reserve the balance of my time.