Date: 2006-09-07
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Thank you. Mr. DELAHUNT. and thank you. Mr. LARSON. and others who are gathered here to talk about these very important national security questions. As you pointed out. Mr.. DELAHUNT and Mr. LARSON. we have taken our eye off the ball here. As we approach the terrible fifth anniversary of the tragic attacks of 2001. September 11. it is important to remember that the attacks upon our homeland were launched by al Qaeda from Afghanistan and had nothing to do with Iraq. nothing to do with Iraq. Yet here. as we gather 5 years later. we have not finished the job in Afghanistan. We have not finished the job against al Qaeda. Indeed. the situation is now getting worse today than it was a year ago and even a year before that. Now. the President has said in the last 10 days that he wants to have a national conversation about Iraq and national security. and he has delivered a number of speeches. But when you listen to what he has had to say. it is clear that unfortunately once again he is not interested in the national conversation. Conversation imlilies a give and take. a dialogue. an exchange of views. But when you listen to the President. on the one hand he lays out his idea of what he wants to go forward and then engages in fingerpointing and name calling of anybody who disagrees with him. Secretary Rumsfeld and Vice President CHENEY have gone around this country engaging in name calling and fingerpointing against anyone who disagrees with them. They got all the answers. they Jell us. You know what? For years and years they have gotten away with that by the majority in this Congress. The Republican majority in this Congress has essentially said. yes. you two have all the answers. and we are going to write you a blank check. and we are not going to ask you the hard questions. Well. I am glad the President wants to have a big national conversation. Lets make this a real conversation on national security. I say. lets have it. because I think when the American people look at the facts on the ground. and the fact that this administration has made our world and our country a much more dangerous place than it otherwise had to be. that people will ask questions about whose judgment is best in these matters. Let us just think back to May 2003 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln. The President gave a speech with a big banner behind him. "mission accomplished." mission accomplished. That was May 2003. more than 3 years ago. We havent finished the mission in Afghanistan. and we have got a mess on our hands in Iraq. Let us just think back to more than a year ago. Vice President CHENEY said that the insurgency in Iraq was in its. quote. final throes. the last gasp. Well. we just had a Pentagon report come out a few days ago. Here is what they had to say about that. In addition to a budding civil war or a civil war. they say the Sunnibased insurgency remains. quote. potent and viable. For years now Secretary Rumsfeld .has been giving us these sorts of rosy scenarios about what would happen in Iraq. and he has been proven wrong again and again and again. So when thePresident and his people say to the American people. we have got all the answers. I think the American people get it now that they dont have all the answers. We need to have this debate and this discussion. Let me just quickly go back to the issue of Afghanistan. because the world was with us. We were united as a Nation. we were united as a NATO alliance. and we were united as an international community. The United .Nations unanimously passed a resolution saying they were with the United States in its war on terror and its war on al Qaeda. Yet. today. al Qaeda is still active. they are still plotting. they are still trying to do harm to Americans and others around the world. Yet. if you look at what is happening in Afghanistan right now. we have got to be concerned. The United States is not doing all that it should in Afghanistan. The major resurgence has occurred in the southern part of Afghanistan. That has been the stronghold for the Taliban. Yet we have reduced. reduced. the number of U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan. Second. we. the Bush administration. disbanded the only unit within the CIA whose specific mission was to go after al Qaeda. They said. we dont need it anymore. Thats what they said about a month ago. That was before the President again quoted Osama bin Laden a few days ago in one of his speeches for why we still need to be concerned. Well. we should be concerned. That is why what we are doing in Afghanistan has not made sense. Third. we just learned the other day that the opium production in Afghanistan is at an alltime record. alltime record. We know that the funds from those sales of those drugs are being used to fuel al Qaeda and the Taliban. Finally. finally. we just learned yesterday of this agreement now between the Government of Pakistan. General Musharraf. has entered into this agreement with the proTaliban militia. and the agreement says we. the Pakistan military. will now take a handsoff posture along the northwest frontier. that was the Waziristan part of Pakistan where the Taliban have regrouped and. where al Qaeda has regrouped and what they have used to launch attacks into Afghanistan. Now Musharraf is saying. no. that is not what he meant. But it is very clear he has essentially said Pakistan military isnt coming after you anymore. you Taliban who are in that part of Pakistan. We have a handsoff policy. That is simply a signal to them that they can now more freely operate to try to step up their atpacks in Afghanistan. that they can continue to collaborate with al Qaeda. So here we are. here we are coming up on the fifth anniversary of those tragic attacks launched from Afghanistan by al Qaeda because they were given safe haven by the Taliban. and we havent finished the job.4 and we have reduced the amount of resources that we are committing to completing the mission. Mission accomplished. nowhere near it.