Exhausted 18 year old American soldier from the 1st Infantry Division on the floor after completing a 11.5 hour combat mission to search for weapons caches in the Alaugal valley in Nishagam, in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province (Photo credit: Getty Images).
On November 20, 2013 Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina asked for and was granted permission to address the United States House of Representatives for a few minutes about the war in Afghanistan.
“To the American soldier, I am sorry to say, if we don’t do our job in Congress, you will be there until 2024.”
“The American people need to call their Members of Congress and say that we do not accept this agreement to keep our troops there until 2024. If you can’t stop it, at least have a debate on the floor of the House and pass a resolution to say this is what the American people want to see: no long-term agreement with Afghanistan”, he said.
“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank God for blessing our troops and blessing America. Excerpts for the Record from NBC News Article “Endless Afghanistan? US-Afghan Agreement Would Keep Troops in Place and Funds Flowing, Perhaps Indefinitely”
“While many Americans have been led to believe the war in Afghanistan will soon be over, a draft of a key U.S.-Afghan security deal obtained by NBC News shows the United States is prepared to maintain military outposts in Afghanistan for many years to come, and pay to support hundreds of thousands of Afghan security forces. The wide-ranging document, still unsigned by the United States and Afghanistan, has the potential to commit thousands of American troops to Afghanistan and spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars”, said Jones.
“The document outlines what appears to be the start of a new, open-ended military commitment in Afghanistan in the name of training and continuing to fight al-Qaeda. The war in Afghanistan doesn’t seem to be ending, but renewed under new, scaled-down U.S.-Afghan terms. The deal, according to the text, would take effect on Jan. 1, 2015 and “shall remain in force until the end of 2024 and beyond”, said Rep. Jones http://thomas.loc.gov).
See video: Afghanistan War without End documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zcm8L7X0L0