On the recordJuly 23, 2013
I join the gentleman in opposition to this amendment. I understand the gentleman's concerns about what's happened in Afghanistan, what is happening in Afghanistan. Many of us have been to Afghanistan many times. That country was totally destroyed by the Russians during the prior war. They were left with nothing. It is probably, if not the poorest, one of the poorest countries on the face of the Earth, rubble on rubble. And when we leave, and we are going to leave Afghanistan in 2014, what we're saying is we're going to give them the basic parts of energy production, which is what the primary source of this money is going to develop. So I reluctantly oppose the gentleman's amendment, and join the gentleman in his opposition.
