Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: “Upon my first visit to Iraq in 2003, I was struck by the centralized reconstruction process. I believed it was a…”

“Upon my first visit to Iraq in 2003, I was struck by the centralized reconstruction process. I believed it was a mistake, and I came back in November of that year and gave a speech on the floor of the House and I said that I thought that one of the things that we needed to do was to provide the Iraqi people a transactional benefit to undergird the transformational change to democracy. This lesson is equally applicable in Afghanistan, which is why this bill today is so welcomed, because it recognizes that the people of Afghanistan in the provinces, in the local levels are where the reconstruction money must really be targeted. If you think about how the United States evolved into a democracy, we began with the family unit and went to the town halls and went to our county government level and eventually became States and eventually became a strong union. We can expect no more nor no less from the people of other nations who are yearning to breathe free and have been given the chance to seize the opportunity.”