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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION 824

 
2    WHEREAS, The United States of America was attacked in a
3well-coordinated operation by a group of terrorists on
4September 11, 2001; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Almost 3,000 innocent men, women, and children
6were killed as a result of the airplanes that were hijacked by
7the terrorists and subsequently crashed into the World Trade
8Center, the Pentagon, and an open field in Shanksville,
9Pennsylvania; and
 
10    WHEREAS, The terrorists were proven to be members of the
11terrorist organization known as al-Qaeda, which was lead by
12Osama bin Laden; and
 
13    WHEREAS, The al-Qaeda terrorist organization had operated
14for years from sanctuary locations based in Afghanistan; the
15group conducted numerous acts of terror over the years against
16U.S. targets both on the U.S. mainland and in other locations
17throughout the world, which had been planned in those sanctuary
18locations; and
 
19    WHEREAS, In order to disrupt and destroy the al-Qaeda
20terrorist organization and capture or eliminate its leaders, it
21was necessary to attack the organization's sanctuary bases; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In October of 2001, the United States military,
2acting under orders issued by Commander-in-Chief President
3George W. Bush, attacked al-Qaeda sanctuary bases in
4Afghanistan in conjunction with local Afghan forces opposed to
5the terrorist organization operating in their country; and
 
6    WHEREAS, The United States military, in the finest
7traditions of America's fighting forces, had great success in
8disrupting, dispersing, and destroying al-Qaeda operations and
9eliminating many of its senior leaders; and
 
10    WHEREAS, President Barack Obama, succeeding President Bush
11as Commander-in-Chief, did continue and strengthen the efforts
12to completely destroy al-Qaeda; such efforts resulted in the
13killing of Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, bringing
14the world's leading terrorist to justice for the many acts of
15murder which he and his organization carried out; and
 
16    WHEREAS, The United States, having joined forces with
17nations from around the world, led an effort to stabilize
18Afghanistan by supporting infrastructure projects beneficial
19to all Afghans and by helping the Afghans understand the
20positive benefits of equal rights for all, judicial due
21process, and the rule of law; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, After more than a decade of extended military
2operations to enhance security and with contributions of
3hundreds of billions of dollars of nation-building resources
4having been put into the country to foster development, much
5progress has been made toward the goals of a free and secure
6society within Afghanistan; and
 
7    WHEREAS, While this progress has come at a high financial
8cost, it has also cost the lives of more than 1,500 brave
9American service members and dozens of fighting forces of other
10nations, all of whom made the ultimate sacrifice in service to
11their country; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Despite this progress, it appears from recent
13events involving all the International Security Assistance
14Forces (ISAF) that the presence of the United States military
15and that of other countries, as well as the civilian
16consultants that are working to help the Afghan people, has not
17been accepted by a broad spectrum of the Afghanistan
18population; and
 
19    WHEREAS, This lack of acceptance places all foreign
20military and civilian consultant personnel in grave danger,
21which results in an inability for those personnel to properly
22conduct the types of operations in which they are engaged; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, There is already in place a plan to withdraw most
2forces from Afghanistan in the 2014 time frame; therefore, be
3it
 
4    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
5NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
6we urge the President and Congress to begin an expedited
7withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan, to the fullest extent
8possible consistent with strategic military objectives, thus
9accelerating the current withdrawal plan set in place; and be
10it further
 
11    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be sent
12to the President, the Speaker of the United States House of
13Representatives, and the President pro tempore of the United
14States Senate.