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“SNATCHING DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF VICTORY IN AFGHANISTAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3999-H4000 on May 13, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SNATCHING DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF VICTORY IN AFGHANISTAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, for approximately 5 years I warned this body about the threat that the Taliban regime posed to the United States and the free world and the threat posed by the al Qaeda terrorist network, which was then operating out of Afghanistan. For years I was a voice in the wilderness; and later it was found, of course, that those warnings should have been heeded.
Tonight, I rise to alert my colleagues that our State Department may well be in the process of snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory in Afghanistan.
First and foremost, let us note that we, the American people, have not done right by the people of Afghanistan. These poor people, in their war-torn land, they again have helped us out, but again we have not stepped forward with the type of commitment to rebuild their country and to help them rebuild what would have been warranted by the sacrifices they have made.
Their bravery and their sacrifice helped defeat, not just helped defeat, it dramatically and specifically defeated the Soviet Army that was occupying their country, and that defeat of the Soviet Army was a major factor in the end of the Cold War. After the Cold War and after the Soviet Army left, we walked a way to leave them amidst land mines and rubble.
However, after we were attacked 10 years later by the Taliban and the al Qaeda, the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, which are the northern tribes, you might say, of Afghanistan, rallied to our side and were instrumental in eliminating the Taliban regime and defeating al Qaeda. Without their support, we would have lost many hundreds, if not thousands, of troops in Afghanistan. These brave people, however, after they helped us defeat the Soviet Union, then they helped us defeat the Taliban, these brave people are still sleeping in the rubble.
We have not built, as Newt Gingrich noted recently, one new mile of road in Afghanistan. Three weeks ago, I was in Afghanistan and drove across the country on the same roads, the hole-pocked roads and horrible conditions that have existed there for years. Not one mile of new road, not one new energy project has been built, although most all Afghans live in the darkness of a nonelectric world.
We need to offer them a way out of their despair. We need to let them know that America's word counts and that they can count on us because they have helped us. We need to repay our debt to the people of Afghanistan. We need to offer them a way to lay down their rifles and pick up shovels and start rebuilding their country.
Instead, we have not done what is right by the people of Afghanistan, and our State Department seems to be not competent to get that job done, because for a year and a half the job has not been proceeding as it should.
Instead, our State Department is, what? Our State Department is pushing that our allies in the war against the Taliban, the Northern Alliance, should, without reservation, disarm and dismantle their military forces; this at a time when those people who sided with the Taliban could well take over the central government and as the Taliban are still skirmishing throughout the country periodically. Yet our State Department wants our allies to disarm.
By the way, our allies, and I visited them 1 month ago, want one thing and one thing only: the Northern Alliance, those who fought with us against the Taliban, are asking only that they have the right to elect their local leaders, their local mayors and provision leaders. That is what they are asking for. Is that not understandable? Is this not what America is all about?
It is funny that our State Department, however, is pushing a system that is totally contrary to the American experience. They, instead, are insisting that Afghanistan have, get this, a French-like centralized system of government, in which the provision leaders and the local leaders would be appointed. The local police chief is appointed by the centralized government in Kabul, the capital city. The school masters are appointed by the centralized government in Kabul.
This is not freedom. This is not what America is all about. Yet our State Department pushes in exactly the wrong direction. We need to oversee what the State Department is doing in Afghanistan before it collapses and before the heroin production in that country destroys any hope for those people to have a decent life in the future.
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