The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SMART SECURITY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H234-H235 on Jan. 18, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SMART SECURITY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, our Nation is now in its 10th straight year of war. The military occupation of Afghanistan is longer than any war in our Nation's history. An entire generation of young people--
including my three grandchildren who came with me to visit Washington for the swearing in--is growing up knowing nothing but a Nation at war.
This war is not just a moral abomination with devastating human costs, and it is not just fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable with a price tag of about $370 billion, though it most certainly is all of that. Perhaps the most tragic irony of this war is, for all of the sacrifice, it is not even doing what it was supposed to do: keeping us safe and defeating a terrorist threat.
If Iraq and Afghanistan have proven anything to us, Mr. Speaker, it is that we need an entirely new national security model; one that emphasizes brain over brawn; one that uses soft power instead of hard; one that protects America by relying on the most honorable American values--love of freedom, desire for peace, moral leadership, and compassion for the people of the world. With these values in mind, this week I once again introduced a resolution calling for the adoption of a SMART Security platform. SMART Security would redirect our energy and resources away from warfare and it would focus instead on nonproliferation, conflict prevention, international diplomacy, and multilateralism. That means renewing our commitment to cooperation with other nations through the United Nations and other international institutions.
SMART Security would build on the new START treaty ratified last month and move us more aggressively toward a goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons. It would rearrange our budget priorities so we are no longer throwing billions of dollars at weapons systems designed for a different era and instead invest in human capital around the world. That means addressing root causes of instability and violent conflict by increasing development aid and debt relief to poor countries.
We would be supporting programs that promote sustainable development, that promote democracy building, human rights education, a strong civil society, gender equality, education for women and girls, and much, much more.
The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review recently completed at the State Department reaffirms the principles underlying SMART Security, calling for civilian power to lead the way in resolving conflicts and reducing threats around the world, with diplomacy and development mutually reinforcing one other; also strongly recommending a renewed focus on the rights of women and girls.
The bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is that might doesn't make right. The conventional wisdom of peace through strength does not work, especially in an era with the greatest threats we face being from nonstate actors.
A national security based on occupation and conquest has been given a chance to work over the last decade, and it has failed miserably. What we need in Afghanistan is a civilian surge, not a military surge. For the security of the American and the Afghan people, we need to be humanitarian partners, not military occupiers. It is time, Mr. Speaker, to bring our troops home and implement SMART Security principles. It is time that we do it now.
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