China

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last night I had an interesting dinner. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and I joined two Republican Senators, and we met for dinner with eight Ambassadors from Central and South America. It was a rare occurrence which we hadn't seen in the last year and a half, the kind of dialogue and communication which I think is an important part of my job and an important part of understanding the world today.

They had one consistent message. Despite the fact that they felt a closeness to the United States that had been built up over decades of generations, there was a new factor in Central and South America which each one of them repeated as significant in the future of that region. The new factor is the arrival of China.

In each one of these countries, large and small, China has become a player, a force. They have invested their resources in developing an economic relationship with these countries, have provided them with COVID-19 vaccines when others would not, and were becoming larger and larger factors in the future of the economies of these countries.

Senator Coons said at one point, and I certainly would agree with him: We have to take this seriously in the United States. We can't assume that long-term relationships and friendships will see us through. We need to be actively engaged in strengthening and creating alliances with these countries in our hemisphere.

He added--and I am glad he did--the United States has chosen, over recent history, to literally spend trillions of dollars on military efforts and those overseas commitments, which is money China wasn't spending for the same purpose. China was spending trillions of dollars to develop economic relationships, to loan money for infrastructure projects in developing countries.

The United States was spending its money in other places, which takes me directly to the statement that was made earlier by the Republican Senate leader, Senator McConnell, about Afghanistan. You see, I was here on the floor of the Senate when we voted to invade Afghanistan, and I voted for it. We were told that al-Qaida was waiting there in hiding for the next opportunity to strike America and that if we didn't do our part to go after Osama bin Laden, there would be more American innocent victims. Overwhelmingly, on a bipartisan vote, a unanimous bipartisan vote, in the Senate Chamber, we voted to invade Afghanistan, and I was one of those votes.

Let me quickly add that I was one of 23 who voted against the invasion of Iraq. I didn't think the case had been made by the Bush administration and still don't.

But going into Afghanistan was, with the exception of one Member of the House, a unanimous bipartisan verdict at that moment in American history. As we look back on it now, I don't think a single person who voted for the invasion of Afghanistan would have ever guessed that we were voting for the longest war in the history of the United States. Yes, that is what it turned out to be--over 20 years in the war in Afghanistan.

Well, decisions have been made to change that, and they were not made by President Biden alone. They were first made by President Trump. If you will remember correctly, he was negotiating with the Taliban for an exit strategy, a timetable, to leave Afghanistan, and they were reaching agreement on that fact. The Senator from Kentucky didn't dwell on that fact, but it is an important one. The decision had been made by the Republican administration to leave. Biden inherited it and accepted it, and he has been going forward with that.

Keep in mind, we are not leaving without an effort. It is a supreme effort for more than 2,000 Americans who lost their lives in that effort in Afghanistan and more than $1 trillion--much more than $1 trillion--being spent in dedication to that effort over the years. So after all that effort, it was clear this long-term war was going to be longer still, and the Senator from Kentucky came to the floor today with the plea that we should have continued that war in Afghanistan--to what end and on what timetable, I have no idea.

But it is interesting when he mentions the fact that there were Afghan citizens helping the United States who were not being treated properly. You see, Senator Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has an emergency security supplemental bill, which he is trying to move quickly. It has already passed the House. It pays for the expenses of January 6 and the mob that invaded the Capitol after being inspired by President Trump. But it does more than that. It provides resources for those Afghans who did help us in that war to protect them.

I would vote for that in a second, but that emergency supplemental has been bogged down by the Republican side of the aisle. And then the Republican leader comes and says we are not doing enough for the refugees. I commend to him to read the Leahy supplemental appropriations. Resources are there for those same refugees. And I support that, he should support that and should instruct the Republican leader on the Appropriations Committee to join in the effort.

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