Amendment No. 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, Senator Udall and I are pleased to present a bipartisan amendment that will finally end America's longest war. Our amendment will finally and completely end the war in Afghanistan.

Over 4,000 Americans have died in Afghanistan, and over 20,000 have been wounded. It is time to bring our soldiers home.

I supported going into Afghanistan originally. Had I been in Congress at that time, I would have voted in favor of it. But the people who attacked us on 9/11 have all been killed or captured. Most of the people fighting us today are their successors or children or the children of their children. In fact, we now have soldiers who were born after 9/11 serving in Afghanistan.

The cycle shows no sign of ending. The war shows no sign of ending. It is not sustainable to keep fighting in Afghanistan generation after generation. We have been fighting in Afghanistan for so long that our youngest soldiers fighting there weren't even born at the time.

We have spent about $1 trillion to establish an Afghan Government--a government that is rife with corruption and dysfunction. We spent more to rebuild Afghanistan than the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. We have built infrastructure in Afghanistan and then watched it deteriorate and watched the Afghans be unable to even maintain the infrastructure we built for them, and then they ask us for more money to maintain the structure. Meanwhile, our roads and our bridges crumble here at home as we rebuild the infrastructure in Afghanistan.

One example is, several years ago, we reportedly hired a local security consultant to help secure the roads at a cost of $1 million per year. But according to the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, American officials came to suspect that the money was being funneled to insurgents to stage attacks on our infrastructure to justify the security contract. So our money was going to a guy who was paying insurgents to pretend to attack him so he could provide security for their infrastructure. It is crazy.

We spent $43 million on a natural gas gas station. Guess how many vehicles in Afghanistan run on natural gas. Zero. You can't even find the gas station. My staff went there to see if the money had been spent, and they couldn't go there because it was too unsafe. Now the report is that the gas station has been abandoned--$43 million.

We spent nearly $80 million on a luxury hotel. Why is the American taxpayer building luxury hotels in Kabul? Guess what. A contractor ran off with the money. It is a skeleton. The Taliban are now said to climb up into the structure and shoot down at our Embassy. What kind of foolhardy nature of government are we that we continue to stay there?

These are just a few of the many examples that have had us spend more than we spent in Europe on the Marshall Plan.

We continue to pour good money after bad into Afghanistan, hoping that the outcome will somehow change, hoping that maybe the first 20 years will produce better results than the last 20 years did.

This NDAA, this defense authorization that we are debating here in the Senate, even has the sense of the Senate in it opposing a precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan. We have been there for 20 years. How can we characterize withdrawal after 20 years, after we defeated the enemy, as precipitous? It is crazy. The American people say ``Come home,'' and this is your chance.

Many people have said that we should end the war. Today, you get to vote. Are you for staying in Afghanistan for another generation? Are you for continuing a war that has lost its purpose? Today, we get to vote up or down: Are you for the war or against the war? Does the war still have a mission?

The American people know better. They are ready to declare victory and come home. It is why President Trump's message resonated with so many. He said ``It is time to come home,'' and the people agreed.

Not only is it time to end the war and focus on our needs at home, but it is time to reward those who fought the battle. We are spending $50 billion a year over there.

From the savings in the first year, in our amendment, Senator Udall and I will provide a $2,500 bonus for anyone who has been deployed in the long War on Terror. That is a pretty good bonus. Our soldiers deserve it, and they also deserve to come home because there is no military mission left.

Instead of spending another $50 billion in Afghanistan next year, let's give some of that money to our soldiers who fought the war, and let's begin saving some money from the massive deficit we face here at home.

This is the Senate's chance to show that it is time to declare victory. It is time to come home.

I urge support for my amendment, and I also remind Senators this is your chance to vote to end a war.

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