Brian Jones: “Last week in a hearing of the Armed Services Committee, we listened to the concerns of Army Secretary John McHugh and…”

“Last week in a hearing of the Armed Services Committee, we listened to the concerns of Army Secretary John McHugh and Chief of Staff of the Army, General Ray Odierno. They appeared before the committee to tell us about the serious problems facing the United States Army, specifically, the difficult budget situation the Army is currently facing. It was my intention to ask the following question regarding the funding that is being cut from the Army: Why are we continuing to spend billions of dollars in Afghanistan when the money could be going to support our servicemembers? As I did last week, I would like to read a short paragraph from the World Affairs Journal entitled, ``Money Pit: The Monstrous Failure of U.S. Aid to Afghanistan.'' The article states that, in 2012, the United States budgeted $11.2 billion for Afghan military training, with another $5.8 billion for 2013. The article goes on to say: In Afghanistan, a big problem is illiteracy. Almost 3 years ago, when Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell IV, took command of the NATO training mission, he noted that ``overall literacy'' among Afghan military and police stood ``at about 14 percent.'' How can an illiterate policeman read a license plate, the General asked, how can a soldier fill out a form, read an equipment manual?…”