Brian Jones: “Last week, in the Armed Services Committee, we had General Allen, who oversees our military effort in Afghanistan. I…”

“Last week, in the Armed Services Committee, we had General Allen, who oversees our military effort in Afghanistan. I have the utmost respect for General Allen. In fact, General Allen's former boss in the Marine Corps had some very kind words to say about General Allen, which I read before I got into my questions. {time} 1020 I would today like to quote the former boss of General Allen, who's been my adviser on Afghanistan for 3 years, and I actually read these comments to General Allen before I got to my question: Attempting to find a true military and political answer to the problems in Afghanistan would take decades, not years, and drain our Nation of precious resources, with the most precious being our sons and daughters. Simply put, the United States cannot solve the Afghan problem, no matter how brave and determined our troops are. Mr. Speaker, I keep hearing the term, well, we're going to probably be out sometime around 2014. Well, it's kind of like what many of us, including myself, are guilty of, and that is putting it down the road, putting it down the road, we'll deal with it in some time. But the problem is our young men and women are dying, getting killed and severely wounded by IEDs. I hope that Congress, when we get into May of this year and we start debating the Department of Defense bill, will bring up some amendments dealing with Afghanistan. History has proven time and time again that no one, no nation will ever change Afghanistan.…”