Rep. James P. McGovern Ten years. Ten long, bloody, costly years. This week, we mark the 10th anniversary of the War in Afghanistan. This has become the longest war in American history. 1,780 servicemen and women have lost their lives. Husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers and friends. During the last ten years, our mission has changed at least ten times. What started as an effort to go after Osama bin Laden and the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks has become a seemingly endless, pointless occupation in support of a corrupt, incompetent Karzai government. And our policy seems to be on autopilot. Where is the debate? Where is the discussion in Congress? Recently, the Administration floated a trial balloon about keeping American troops in Afghanistan through at least 2025. Well, we are here to shoot down that trial balloon. And as we speak, the so-called “SuperCommittee” is trying to find ways to address our deficit and debt problems. We want to reiterate that there is no better way to reduce our deficit than to end these wars and bring our troops home to their families. We are spending – check that, we are BORROWING – tens of billions of dollars every year. We’re not paying for this.

In fact, the only people asked to sacrifice anything are our brave men and women in uniform and their families. It’s not fair, and it’s not right. Even if we end this war tomorrow, our children and grandchildren will be paying for it for years and years to come by caring for our wounded soldiers, replacing military equipment, rebuilding our armed forces and paying interest on the trillions we have borrowed. Enough is enough. It’s long past time to bring our troops home. And we pledge today, in a bipartisan way, that we will continue to do all we can to do all we can to make it happen. Thank you.