The Public Record
Adam Smith is a U.S. Representative for Washington's 9th congressional district, serving since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, he has focused on various legislative efforts, particularly in defense and foreign policy. Throughout his tenure, Smith has been involved in key discussions and initiatives related to national security and military funding, reflecting his commitment to these issues. He has also been an advocate for progressive policies within his district and has worked on legislation addressing economic and social challenges faced by his constituents.
There are two issues important to this piece of legislation. The first that the chairman mentioned is the legality of this. However, he is wrong in the idea in saying that this is clear on its face and there is no debate. There is actually…
It has been challenged. I mean, witness the drone strikes and some other things.
The stability of the Afghan Government still is plagued with corruption and plagued with a number of difficulties.
I fear that the totality of the President's interest on Afghanistan is simply to do what is necessary to finish the job and withdraw.
Those gains are fragile and reversible because the problems with the Afghan Government remain.
That said, we have got to hand off responsibility at some point and I think it is important we have done this in a stairstep manner.
We need to find some way to contain that and hopefully get us to the point where we can have a peaceful and reasonably stable regime in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
We don't have the ability to walk in and say we are going to fix this because there just isn't U.S. credibility in those parts of the world.
I think this hearing is incredibly important as well. We are struggling with a very, very difficult national security and policy challenge.
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