Political Quotes

“I wish to spend a few minutes talking about our allies across the globe, and I am doing so because they are important to our national security. That seems to be an obvious statement, but our allies seem to be getting a bit of a bipartisan short shrift of late. I come to the floor of the Senate to talk about how important they are to our Nation, to our citizens. It is bipartisan, as I mentioned. As many of us have read, on the campaign trail Presidential candidate Donald Trump has been critical of NATO, has been critical of our Asia- Pacific allies. Meanwhile--and in many ways it hasn't gotten the news it deserves because it is a sitting President--in a recent article in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg entitled ``The Obama Doctrine,'' President Obama himself is dismissive of many U.S. allies around the world. I thought it was important to talk a little bit about our allies and how important they are to U.S. security and to expanding American influence globally. Let's start with Mr. Trump. He has called NATO--which, by the way, happens to be one of the most successful alliances in the history of the world--an alliance that is ``obsolete'' and ``too expensive.'' About the members of the 28-nation alliance, he said: ``Either they pay up, including for past deficiencies, or they have to get out. And if it breaks up NATO, it breaks up NATO.'' Oh, well. So much for the world's most successful alliance.…”