STATEMENT FROM CHAIRMAN MENENDEZ FOLLOWING CLASSIFIED COMMITTEE BRIEFING ON AFGHANISTAN

[panader0]

17. What do you want to do? Re-invade Afghanistan? Twenty more years?

Fact: They never wanted us there. Sure, we can set up a government that asks us to come in,
but the people don't want us there. Would you like a foreign government to invade the US because
you know we have many problems here too. The Afghans culture is not conducive to the structure
that the US was trying to impose on it. It was a mistake to invade 20 years ago, it's a mistake to stay.
You have been very vocal in your criticism of the withdrawal. What exactly would you propose to solve
this situation? What about all of the other nations in the world with great injustices? For that matter,
what about the great injustices in our own country?
I never believed that the only reason we invaded was because the 9/11 hijackers trained there, hell
they trained in Florida and Arizona too. Oil has always been at the core of our Middle East policies.