Congresswoman Sara Jacobs Statement on the End of Military Operations in Afghanistan
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-CA-53), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, released the following statement:
“Today, I’m reflecting on the last 20 years. How much has changed, and yet how much has stayed the same. The lives we’ve lost, and the ones we left behind. The families - Afghan and American - who will be forever changed. And my generation that has never known a day in our adult lives that the United States hasn’t been at war.
Today, we begin the work of ensuring that no future generation will have to say the same thing. That means questioning the same theories and same arguments from the same people who got us into this war in the first place and kept us there for two decades. That means conducting oversight so we learn the lessons and failures of the last 20 years so we don’t repeat them. That means ensuring Congress never again abdicates its role in the making of war and peace. That means maintaining our commitments to the people of Afghanistan by continuing humanitarian support and welcoming Afghan refugees. And that means actually ending the endless wars, and not just believing they are over because our troops have come home.
Today, the United States’ military role in Afghanistan has officially ended, but tomorrow the work continues. To build a foreign policy worthy of the people who sacrifice to implement it, to build a national security strategy based on the challenges of the future, not the past, and to build a world generations to come can be proud of.”