John Ensign: “before I make my full statement, I want my colleagues to know that the amendment that I have sent to the desk is…”

“before I make my full statement, I want my colleagues to know that the amendment that I have sent to the desk is something that we have been working with the administration on for almost 8 months now. I believe we have come up with a compromise that most people in the administration support. It is a very important amendment as far as the foreign policy and the military policy of our country is concerned. This amendment will allow our soldiers and marines to more effectively carry out their mission on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, while saving both military and civilian lives. Riot control agents, more commonly referred to as tear gas, can be a more effective alternative to the use of lethal weapons in combat. It is shocking and unacceptable that under current policy our military is banned from using tear gas on the battlefield. Let me restate that. Under current policy, our military is banned from using tear gas on the battlefield. Police officers in any city in America can use tear gas to avoid the loss of life, but our men and women carrying out the global war on terror cannot. This is not right and it must change. This restriction on the use of tear gas is the direct result of the bureaucracy's faulty interpretation of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, an interpretation made by arms control advocates in Brussels and The Hague and regrettably at our own State Department. Under this faulty interpretation, tear gas is considered a chemical weapon.…”