[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 176 (Wednesday, December 7, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H7274-H7275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRAGIC LOSS OF AMERICAN LIFE IN AFGHANISTAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I am back on the floor again today to discuss
the tragic loss of American life in Afghanistan. This past week, I was
touched by George Stephanopoulos and ABC as they publicly listed the
nine servicemembers that died in Iraq and Afghanistan during the month
of November.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the names of the nine American
heroes.
Sergeant John W. Perry of Stockton, California; Private 1st
Class Tyler R. Lubelt of Tamaroa, Illinois; Sergeant 1st
Class Ryan A. Gloyer of Greenville, Pennsylvania; Captain
Andrew D. Byers of Rolesville, North Carolina; Senior Chief
Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton of Woodbridge, Virginia;
Specialist Ronald L. Murray, Jr., of Bowie, Maryland; Staff
Sergeant James F. Moriarty of Kerrville, Texas; Staff
Sergeant Kevin J. McEnroe of Tucson, Arizona; Staff Sergeant
Matthew C. Lewellen of Lawrence, Kansas.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I find it quite ironic that the last moment
of silence for our men and women in uniform who have died serving this
Nation during wartime by the House Chair took place on March 23, 2015,
almost 2 years ago. I, frankly, do not understand how House leadership
is not more concerned about those who have given their life serving
this Nation.
Additionally, Mr. Speaker, I wrote to Secretary of Defense Ashton
Carter several weeks ago regarding an article that said that there are
200,000 Afghan soldiers who do not exist--they call them ghosts--who
are on the payroll of the Department of Defense. I asked him in the
letter: Why are we wasting this money, and can you identify where the
money is going?
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record my letter to Secretary Ashton
Carter.
Congress of the United States,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, October 14, 2016.
Hon. Ashton B. Carter,
Secretary of Defense,
Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Carter: I am responding to Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense (Acting) Jedidiah Royal's October 3,
2016, response to the Office of the Special Inspector General
for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)'s letter to you (dated
August 5, 2016) regarding ``ghost soldiers'' in Afghanistan.
I am appalled that the U.S. taxpayer has, and continues to
pay, for ``ghost soldiers'' in Afghanistan. Moreover, I am
also concerned about the risks that inadequacy of data
concerning personnel levels of the Afghan National Security
and Defense Forces (ANDSF) may pose to American forces in
Afghanistan.
In Deputy Assistant Secretary Royal's response to SIGAR, he
indicates the systems that U.S. Forces-Afghanistan are
putting in place to try to verify Afghan personnel data will
not be ready until at least July 2017. Given the estimate
that there may be up to 200,000 ``ghost soldiers,'' I would
respectfully request an estimate of how much funding provided
to the ANDSF for salaries in fiscal years 2016 and 2017 is
expected to be wasted on ``ghost soldiers.''
Additionally, Deputy Assistant Secretary Royal indicates
that a limited amount of funds has been withheld from the
ANDSF for not adhering to the agreed-upon timeline for
implementation of personnel verification systems. How much
money was withheld, and what percentage does that number
represent of the amount originally designated to be
allocated?
Given that many Afghan military and police outposts have
limited, if any, access to electricity and telecommunications
systems, I would also ask whether there is a contingency plan
to back-up the biometric database and personnel system given
that units may not always have regular access to the
technology needed to operate them? Further, under the current
deployment arrangement ordered by President Obama, U.S.
forces do not have the capability to witness firsthand, at
the lowest levels of the ANDSF, whether there is fraudulent
use of the biometric cards. With that in mind, does DOD
expect there will be salary overpayments even after July
2017?
I am also concerned about the effect the ``ghost soldier''
problem is having on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. While the
Afghan Minister of Defense was recently quoted as saying
there is not a single ``ghost soldier'' in Afghanistan, the
Deputy Assistant Secretary's letter makes clear that is not
the case. We know the collapse of the 215th Corps in Helmand
in 2015 was at least in part due to an overestimation of
ANDSF personnel in Helmand based on inflated numbers reported
to the Ministry of Defense. USFOR-A subsequently deployed
additional personnel closer to the front lines in Helmand to
assist with improving that corps. The ``ghost soldier'' issue
clearly is affecting decision-making within the Defense
Department that affects U.S. personnel. I would like to know
how DOD plans to mitigate any further risk to U.S. military
and civilian personnel that may result from the ongoing
``ghost solider'' problem.
Finally, how confident is the Defense Department that the
ANDSF and the Afghan government have the capability and the
will to effectively implement the new systems, and when will
that implementation be fully achieved? When implemented, does
the Defense Department expect the ``ghost soldier'' problem
to be eliminated, or merely reduced?
Mr. Secretary, the ``ghost soldier'' problem has clearly
existed in Afghanistan since the
[[Page H7275]]
beginning of U.S. operations there. The Defense Department
should have known that ``ghost soldiers'' represented a major
risk to American personnel and American taxpayers no later
than 2008, when a Government Accountability Office report
raised the issue. But year after year, the administration--
with far too little oversight from Congress--continues
sending tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to pay the
salaries of Afghan military and police, thousands of whom
never show up for duty or may not even exist. And now, we are
almost $20 trillion in debt.
After 15 years of wounded and murdered Americans, it is
time to bring this waste, fraud and abuse to an end. It is
sickening, unaffordable, and it must stop. Many scholars have
said that Afghanistan is a graveyard of empires--when this
financial disaster finally brings us to our knees, maybe the
ghost soldiers can visit the headstone that says United
States of America.
Sincerely,
Walter B. Jones,
Member of Congress.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, the reason I mentioned these ghost soldiers
is because Americans are still dying in this godforsaken country known
as Afghanistan, all while our Nation is headed for an economic collapse
as we soon will see the $20 trillion debt number come forward. For the
sake of our military, we need to end this madness in Afghanistan.
I have beside me a photograph of a flag-draped coffin being taken off
of an airplane. This is a humble way that I can say to the nine
Americans who also came home in a flag-draped coffin in the back of a
plane thank you for your service.
Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to have a debate on the floor of
the House as to whether we need to stay in Afghanistan for another 16
years. We have been there for 16 years now.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article that tells the story
of Afghanistan better than I can today on the floor. The title of that
article is ``It's Time for America to Get Out of Afghanistan.''
[Dec. 2, 2016]
It's Time for America To Get Out of Afghanistan
(By Mark Kryzer)
``Nation-building'' hasn't achieved lasting goals, Afghanis
continue to suffer casualties and be displaced, and the costs
to the U.S. keep mounting.
After 15 years and $115 billion of taxpayer dollars spent
on failed ``nation-building,'' it's time for the U.S. to let
go of Afghanistan. (The actual ``total cost of war and
reconstruction'' which includes all U.S. military spending,
has been estimated at $783 billion by the Cost of War project
at Brown University.)
The situation in 2016 has been described by one senior U.S.
government official as an ``eroding stalemate.'' That's
optimistic. We are losing whatever has been achieved there
and the Afghan government is slowly collapsing under the
Taliban onslaught and its own ineptitude driven by
corruption.
The Taliban control more territory now than at any time
since their overthrow by the U.S. in 2001 with the Afghan
government controlling only two-thirds of the country--during
daylight hours. Since January 2016, the Taliban have
contested five provincial capitals, carried out some of the
largest terrorist attacks in the capital city of Kabul, and
have pressed attacks in all 34 provinces of the country, with
an average of 68 attacks a day.
As a result, the Afghan army and police forces have
incurred about 15,000 casualties so far this year, with
civilians suffering more than 5,000 casualties, the highest
levels ever recorded. An estimated 1.2 million Afghans have
been displaced because of the fighting and are living as
refugees in their own country, with another 85,000 opting to
leave the country in the first six months of 2016 alone for
the migrant trail to Europe.
Adding to the Taliban threat, ISIS has now established
itself in two eastern Afghan provinces and Al Qaida
operatives are active in seven provinces, according to a
recent report in ``The Guardian.'' With opium production also
up by 43 percent in the country, there is no shortage of
funds to fuel the insurgency and corruption.
According to a 2016 World Bank report, the social and
economic gains achieved with international assistance over
the last 15 years are also quickly eroding due to war and
corruption.
The Obama administration has opted to leave 8,400 troops in
Afghanistan in 2016 in a support role to the Afghan army,
down from a high of 100,000 in 2010. And the U.S. completely
pays for the Afghan army and police forces. On the civilian
side of reconstruction, the U.S. continues to pour money into
the country for ``nation-building.'' At the Brussels
Afghanistan ``Donors Conference'' in early October, the
international community pledged another $15 billion in
support; the U.S. is the largest contributor.
Given the abysmal results achieved so far, isn't it time to
re-evaluate U.S. foreign policy goals in Afghanistan?
Recently, a group of U.S. generals and former U.S.
ambassadors to Afghanistan announced that a ``generational
commitment'' of assistance was still required of the American
people toward Afghanistan to see it securely to the end goal
of . . . what? Nobody can give a coherent answer to that
question, indicating that we have seriously lost our way.
Most Americans have forgotten about Afghanistan (or no
longer want to hear about it) and are not aware of the
ongoing costs in American lives and resources. It's time for
the next American president to drastically change direction
and explain it to the American people.
That direction should be to start the pullout of
Afghanistan after 15 years of failure to achieve any lasting
policy objectives there. The U.S. should immediately stop the
multitude of civilian ``nation-building'' programs that have
been so costly and failed to achieve their unrealistic goals.
U.S. funding for the Afghan army and police forces should be
put on a diminishing schedule that would stop entirely after
two years, forcing Afghanistan to finally stand or fall on
its own.
It's time to let go of Afghanistan and end the 15-year
drain on American lives and resources.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I ask God to bless our men and women in
uniform, and I ask God to continue to bless America.
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