Brian Jones: “I join my friend from Massachusetts and anyone else, Republican or Democrat, who says it's time to bring our troops home…”

“I join my friend from Massachusetts and anyone else, Republican or Democrat, who says it's time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. I want to thank Chairman Young and Ranking Member Dicks for an excellent bill. I agree with probably 80 percent of it, but I cannot continue to support legislation that sends billions and billions and billions of dollars to Afghanistan. Mr. Chairman, I have a book here in my hand called ``Funding the Enemy: How U.S. Taxpayers Bankroll the Taliban.'' And one of the critiques I would like to read on the back of this book is from the State Department Foreign Service Officer named Peter Van Buren: Sober, sad, and important, ``Funding the Enemy'' peels back the layers of American engagement in Afghanistan to reveal its rotten core: that the United States dollars meant for that country's future instead fund the insurgency and support the Taliban. Paying for both sides of the war ensures America's ultimate defeat. Mr. Chairman, the reason I'm here today is because I have Camp Lejeune Marine Base in my district. I have signed over 10,474 letters to families who have lost loved ones since we were lied to in order to go into Iraq. And while we were continuing to support Karzai, I saw where Vice President Cheney was on the Hill yesterday. I have seen my colleagues today talking about sequestration. I didn't see Mr. Karzai here. No. Why should he be here? He's got his money in this bill. He doesn't have to worry about sequestration.…”