Committee News

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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Inglis opposes Democratic resolution calling for Afghanistan troop withdrawal

U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) opposed a Democratic resolution on the House Floor Wednesday that calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan within 30 days of enactment.

“I just returned from a trip to Afghanistan and saw the amazing work being done on the ground there,” Inglis said. “To immediately withdraw our troops from the ground in Afghanistan would be a catastrophic move in the midst of fighting the war of terror. Especially after the President just announced and is currently implementing a troop surge right now.”

H. Con. Res. 248, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), would direct the President to remove United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan thirty days after enactment of the resolution if passed.

The Resolution allows the President to postpone the withdrawal date to a later date, up to December 31, 2010, should the President determine it’s not safe to remove all military personnel before the end of the 30 days.

Inglis said after his three-day trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan that he is committed to seeing U.S. forces achieve clear strategic goals.

“I’m committed to confining their mission to achievable objectives and to the protection of America’s national security interest.”

In a speech on the House Floor upon returning to Washington last night, Inglis pressed for clarity in America’s role in Afghanistan:

While we’re hunting down terrorists, we’re going to give the Afghan people the opportunity to reject al Qaeda outsiders and to build a future free of the Taliban. The Afghan people should seize the opportunity as it will not last indefinitely. At present more of America’s best are arriving in Afghanistan. They’re there to kill terrorists. They’re there to facilitate the work of an army of American civil servants and contractors who can show a way forward to a stable constitutional republic. They are there to serve America’s national security interest by draining a terrorist cesspool.

But there will come a day when the brave men and women of America’s armed forces will have completed their work—not that they will have taken out every terrorist, for that would be impossible. But there will come a day when we will have destroyed enough of the terrorist networks in Afghanistan that America will be reasonably safe from murderous plotting—at least from within Afghanistan’s borders. Until then, we fight on. Committed to finishing the job. Clear-eyed and determined to avoid mission creep.