Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, the threat from ISIS is real. All of us have seen the violence and the barbarism of ISIS. The rapid advance of ISIS militants within Iraq and Syria is an immediate threat to these countries in the region. No one should be under any delusion about what will happen if the U.S. sits this one out. If unchecked, the ISIS threat will grow and become even more difficult to address down the road and directly threaten our Nation. As we have seen since President Obama authorized the limited airstrikes against ISIS in August, we have the ability to mitigate the ISIS threat, but we cannot defeat ISIS by ourselves with U.S. airstrikes. Thomas Friedman said it well in The New York Times: ISIS loses if our moderate Arab-Muslim partners can unite and make this a civil war within Islam--a civil war in which America is the air force for the Sunnis and Shiites of decency versus those of barbarism . . . It is about them and who they want to be. As I see it, an important aspect of U.S. assistance under this amendment in the training of Syrian rebels is that it will be an occasion for nations with a Sunni majority to join in a battle against the fanatical Sunni ISIS. Hopefully, this can lead to expanded involvement of other nations in this battle at the same time as Iraq's Shi'a majority, with our active encouragement, finally provides full rights and participation for its Sunni and Kurdish minorities.…”