Tom Lantos: “my amendment declares that it should be the policy of the United States to support measures to meet the immediate…”

“my amendment declares that it should be the policy of the United States to support measures to meet the immediate security needs of Afghanistan and requires the President to submit a strategy for meeting the immediate security needs in Afghanistan. I want to put my amendment in its proper context, Madam Chairman. There has been no one on either side of the aisle more in support of the President's global war on terrorism than this Member, and that support continues. But I think it is important that while we support the President in this major global bipartisan effort we do not suspend our critical qualities. Our amendment deals with one such issue. The United States and its coalition partners have freed Afghanistan from the chokehold of all the al Qaeda terrorists and the repressive regime of the Taliban. With the support of the international community, a new interim authority is now in place and the country is now on a path uncertainly towards peace and stability. That very peace and stability is being threatened as the new government of Afghanistan under Chairman Karzai is being undermined by lawlessness and insecurity. Afghanistan is in grave danger of relapsing to the very conditions of violence and warlordism that created the Taliban and attracted al Qaeda to operate in Afghanistan.”