On the recordMarch 10, 2011
Yesterday, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, and I, along with other colleagues, held a press conference to announce House Concurrent Resolution 28, which would require the President to withdraw all United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2011. Last month's USA Today/Gallup poll, 72 percent of Americans favor congressional action this year to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. This week the Rasmussen Report finds that 52 percent of voters want our troops home from Afghanistan this year. To quote this poll, ``A majority of voters, for the first time, support an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan or the creation of a timetable to bring them all home within a year.'' Fourteen months ago, I asked a retired military general to advise me on Afghanistan. I have asked him for his thoughts, and I will read some of them to you. Back in November, I emailed this general and I said, What do you think about the possibility of being in Afghanistan for 4 more years? Mr. Speaker, he replied, ``I do not believe that 40 more years would guarantee 'victory,' whatever that is; so 4 will do nothing. The war is costing money and lives, all in short supply.''
