María Elvira Salazar: “I rise today with a profound debt of gratitude for our men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our brave soldiers…”

“I rise today with a profound debt of gratitude for our men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our brave soldiers are remarkable. They find themselves in a foreign land with regional conflicts that date back over a thousand years. However, they don't run and hide. They fight. They risk their lives helping to encourage and teach the Iraqis to take over their own destiny. Our Nation's sons and daughters deserve nothing short of unconditional gratitude and support from their government and the American people. As long as I am in Congress, our soldiers will have an ally. As a veteran, and a father, I will always fight to protect those who defend their country. I will fight for equipment and supplies. I will fight for their safety and protection. I will make sure they return home to their loved ones as quickly as possible. And I pledge they will NOT be forgotten once they return home. But I will not support sending over 20,000 more young men and women into a fight without a plan to win and get them home. We cannot send more Americans into harm's way to instill a peace that the Iraqis are not willing to seek for themselves. The solutions now are political not military. The Iraq Study Group urged the president to pursue a diplomatic solution alongside our military efforts. But this president has decided to ignore the diplomatic side of the equation.”