Mr. Speaker, President Obama has often said that America must restore its moral leadership in the world. He took a very important step toward doing that last week when he spoke at the United Nations. In his speech, the President called for a new era of engagement and diplomacy. He called for international cooperation to address such critically important issues as nuclear nonproliferation, climate change and economic recovery. He also spoke about banning the use of torture and his decision to close Guantanamo as examples of America's new desire to abide by the rule of law.

I welcome the President's words. They show that President Obama is committed to peace and human rights. Those are the foundations of moral leadership. But now the President is facing the greatest test of his moral leadership as he reviews his strategy in Afghanistan.

The generals are urging him to pour in more troops. I'm sure there are others who are telling him to escalate the fighting just so he can look ``tough on terrorism.'' But as the President makes his next decisions about Afghanistan, I would urge him to make the tough choices. I would urge him to base his decision-making on the following facts: the American people do not believe the war in Afghanistan is worth fighting and want to draw down the numbers of troops there. Sending in more troops will cause the Afghan people to see us as occupiers. And history has told us that the Afghan people always resist foreign occupations and always succeed.

America cannot afford to pour billions of dollars more into a futile occupation when we are going through the worst economic crisis of the past 70 years. We cannot, in good conscience, ask our brave troops to take more casualties without a clear mission, and we don't have one. We cannot ask our military families to continue to sacrifice when they have already suffered so very much.

And finally, we have no exit strategy. After the disaster of Iraq, the American people will not stand for another endless foreign occupation, one that will cost many lives and not make our country any safer.

Afghanistan is a difficult problem, but the President still has good options. He can order the Pentagon to develop a troop redeployment plan and a timetable for withdrawal. At the same time, he can be bold and shift to a new mission that will be far more likely to succeed because it will actually have the support of the Afghan people.

This new mission in Afghanistan would include economic development, education, infrastructure, humanitarian assistance, better governance and improved local policing and intelligence to hunt down extremists. This is what the Afghan people want from America so that they can have hope for a better future and reject violent extremism.

Mr. Speaker, President Obama deserves credit for reviewing his decision earlier than expected to send more troops to Afghanistan. He is showing political courage, and he is showing an open mind by considering other alternatives. I urge him to choose a new course, one that will make our country proud and the world a much safer place.