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Hot Topics:
IRAQ
& SMART Security Platform for the 21st Century Platform
Floor Statements
To Watch Video of Lynn's Iraq Floor Statements,
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The Cost of Afghanistan & Iraq Soon to be $1 Trillion (#324)
Watch Video | | July 30, 2009 | |
| Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Congressman Walter Jones for his 5-minute speech. That was a perfect lead-in to my remarks tonight.
Mr. Speaker, last week I stood in the House to mark two tragic milestones. I said that July had become the deadliest month for our soldiers in Afghanistan since the conflict began, and I reported that the number of American troops who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq had gone over the 5,000 mark.
Today, I rise to warn the House that a third tragic milestone is coming up. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, Congress has approved $941 billion in war-related spending since 9/11. If Congress approves the administration's request for the next fiscal year, funding for Afghanistan and Iraq will go over the $1 trillion mark. And that is just for direct military operations, Mr. Speaker. The $1 trillion figure doesn't include the indirect costs, such as health care for our wounded veterans. Many of our veterans will need care for the rest of their lives. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning economist, has estimated that when you add it all up, the occupation of Iraq alone will cost us over $3 trillion.
Tragically, all that spending has not made us any safer. Violent extremists have launched more attacks around the world since 9/11 than before 9/11. The war spending hasn't made us any richer either. It has contributed to our economic crisis, exploded the lid off our national debt, and diverted funds from desperately needed domestic priorities.
Besides Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress has also approved spending for a third war called the global war on terror. That war has been a big mistake, too. As the Rand Corporation has pointed out, when you use the word ``terrorist,'' you elevate them. You elevate them to the status of holy warriors and it encourages them to conduct holy war against the United States.
We need to call terrorists what they really are, criminals and violent extremists. To stop them, we need good intelligence and good police work in the communities where they hide, not massive military occupations that don't get the job done and bleed our Treasury dry.
I am glad that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have stopped using the phrase ``war on terror.'' That is a good first step. But now we need to take several more steps. We must speed up the withdrawal of our troops and military contractors from Iraq. We must change our mission in Afghanistan to emphasize economic development, humanitarian aid, education, jobs, and better government.
This is the kind of help that the people of Afghanistan want and need from the United States. This is the kind of help that will give the Afghan people real hope for the future and a reason to reject extremism.
And throughout the world, we must replace military power with the tools of smart power, such as diplomacy, multilateral action, and nuclear nonproliferation. I have offered a ``SMART Security Platform for the 21st Century'' which could put these tools to work and make the world a safer place.
Mr. Speaker, America cannot afford to keep using military power as our only option. It is dumb foreign policy, dumb military policy, and dumb fiscal policy. Smart power will save lives and money and build a more peaceful world for our children and their children. |
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