Political Quotes

“a few nights ago I spoke on this floor, and I said that the Secretary of Defense's recommendation to close Fort McClellan, AL, was a mistake with significant and dangerous consequences. To be specific tonight, Madam Speaker, I would like to talk about the mistake of this recommendation that breaks faith with hundreds of thousands of civilians in Alabama who live around a dangerous chemical stockpile which is slated to be destroyed by the United States as part of an agreement with Russia. Let me tell my colleagues something about this stockpile. This chemical stockpile stored in this same community with Fort McClellan, has poisons such as sarin and VX. A small drop of sarin on a man's skin can be fatal. VX is several times more lethal than sarin, and a small drop of the liquid evenly distributed can kill many people. Among the weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot, each M-23 land mine contains 10 rac{1}{2} pounds of VX. Each 155 millimeter artillery projectile can hold either 6 pounds of VX or 6 rac{1}{2} pounds of sarin. Each of the 78,000 M55 115-millimeter rockets; that is 78,000 of those, contains either 10 pounds of VX or 10.7 pounds of sarin. That is a pretty dangerous mixture.”