On the recordJuly 1, 2010
I rise strongly to support the Barbara Lee amendment, of which I am a cosponsor. And this is allowing the orderly withdrawal of our troops, one thing that we did not do in the Vietnam war, when we lost 58,000 of our young men and women, who we treasure and thank them for their service. Now today we have the opportunity to do what Congress should do. It's not to give an unending mandate to a war that is not a constitutionally declared war, which this is not. So I would say that if we are looking for the terrorists, al Qaeda is not there. Our intelligence authorities, and General Petraeus have indicated that there are less than a hundred al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan. There are insurgents who are the Taliban. It is well known that if you give to the Taliban the mountains and valleys that have been given by General McChrystal, and concentrate your war efforts in the cities, you still will lose this war. The Taliban will never surrender the mountains and will continue to attack. A thousand-plus have died; $37 billion is in this bill. We must do what we did not do in Vietnam, and not cry after the fact when we saw the 58,000 body bags come home. Yes, we salute the young men and women who are on the front lines. We thank them for their service and the sacrifice of their families. I have been to Afghanistan many times, and I believe we have a better way.
