Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman of the Armed Services Committee and my ranking member for their leadership on this issue and for the exhaustive discussions and briefings we have had. I also commend all of my colleagues for their thoughtful statements. This is, indeed, a tough decision, but we are elected to make tough decisions. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this amendment to equip and train the Syrian rebel forces. After countless briefings and the President's speech, I am left with more questions than answers. At a briefing today, former U.S. generals have opined that training 3,000 to 5,000 members of the Free Syrian Army will be lame-- in fact, totally inadequate. Why would we train an inadequate number of FSAs to contain ISIL? How do we identify and vet a sufficient number of Syrians who can fight a long, protracted conflict to effectively degrade ISIL? How do we compel the Free Syrian Army to focus on ISIL instead of Assad, the brutal dictator they took up arms in the first place to destroy? What will prevent Assad from continuing to attack the FSA? And what will we do in response? How do we avoid arming individuals that would rather do harm to the United States than ISIL? How do we create a true coalition that will share the burden of this conflict when some only agree tacitly behind closed doors? Jordan has ISIL on both borders but cannot commit publicly to providing boots on the ground.…”