Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about two topics that often make this body and sometimes my side of the aisle uncomfortable. I want to talk about the fight that is on across the world--or particularly in the Middle East for the soul of Islam and how it matters to the United States--and I want to talk about our relationship with Saudi Arabia and the connection to the former issue. We frequently hear this criticism of President Obama that he doesn't have a strategy to defeat ISIS. I fundamentally don't believe that is true. He does have a strategy, and it is largely working when you look at the metrics on the ground. You see that ISIS's territory in Iraq and Syria have been reduced by about 30 percent over the course of the last year. We have tightened our immigration policies here to make sure the bad guys don't get in. We have stood up a more capable fighting force inside Iraq. We have clamped down significantly on ISIS's sources of revenue and financing. Listen, it is hard to win when only one spectacular and deadly strike can erase all of your good work, but the President does have a strategy on the ground right now inside Iraq and inside Syria. The problem is that it is still a relatively short-term strategy. As we debate how to defeat ISIS or groups like it, our strategic prescriptions are all relatively short term. We use military force. We try to retake territory. We try to take out top terrorist leaders. We clamp down on sources of financing.…”