Bill Clinton: “today, I offer my support of the Dorgan amendment and oppose the base closing round scheduled for 2005. The world has…”

“today, I offer my support of the Dorgan amendment and oppose the base closing round scheduled for 2005. The world has changed since this legislation was voted on in 2001. I opposed it then and I oppose it now because we must complete an evaluation of our basing needs for the 21st century. And this argument carries more weight in this post-September 11 world. Since we passed the base closing legislation in 2001, we have had the September 11 attacks, the war in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq. Our men and women in uniform are operating under a tremendously demanding operations tempo. Until we are able to evaluate the lessons of these conflicts and how they should impact our base structure, it seems foolish to rush ahead to a base closing round that was conceived prior to September 11. A number of New York installations have played a vital role in our homeland security as well as military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.”