Dana Rohrabacher: “Hamid Karzai, the chairman of the interim government of Afghanistan, is in Washington, DC; and his visit reminds us of…”

“Hamid Karzai, the chairman of the interim government of Afghanistan, is in Washington, DC; and his visit reminds us of the debt that we owe to the Afghan people. It was the Afghan freedom fighters who fought the Soviet Union and defeated the Soviet Union; and it was the Afghan freedom fighters that fought with us to defeat bin Laden and the Taliban. After the Afghan people fought and defeated the Red Army, which was in occupation of their country, something that left their beautiful country in ruins and in a shamble, we simply walked away from them in 1990. Then during the Clinton years we covertly supported the Taliban. Many of us noted that and opposed it at the time, but what appeared to be covert, or at least acquiescence, covert support or acquiescence to the Taliban continued through the Clinton administration. Many United States officials in the executive branch during the 1990s, who had no complaint about Taliban rule of Afghanistan back then, since September 11, of course, have postured themselves in a totally different way. Well, today, we have another chance. At this time we must do what is right by the Afghan people. Any vacuum created by our unwillingness as we did in the 1990s to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan will be filled by powers that are hostile to the United States. For example, Iran currently is pledging 50 percent more reconstruction aid than the United States.”