Rand Paul: “Senator Udall and I are pleased to present a bipartisan amendment that will finally end America's longest war. Our…”

“Senator Udall and I are pleased to present a bipartisan amendment that will finally end America's longest war. Our amendment will finally and completely end the war in Afghanistan. Over 4,000 Americans have died in Afghanistan, and over 20,000 have been wounded. It is time to bring our soldiers home. I supported going into Afghanistan originally. Had I been in Congress at that time, I would have voted in favor of it. But the people who attacked us on 9/11 have all been killed or captured. Most of the people fighting us today are their successors or children or the children of their children. In fact, we now have soldiers who were born after 9/11 serving in Afghanistan. The cycle shows no sign of ending. The war shows no sign of ending. It is not sustainable to keep fighting in Afghanistan generation after generation. We have been fighting in Afghanistan for so long that our youngest soldiers fighting there weren't even born at the time. We have spent about $1 trillion to establish an Afghan Government--a government that is rife with corruption and dysfunction. We spent more to rebuild Afghanistan than the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. We have built infrastructure in Afghanistan and then watched it deteriorate and watched the Afghans be unable to even maintain the infrastructure we built for them, and then they ask us for more money to maintain the structure.…”