María Elvira Salazar: “I come here to the floor this morning to speak about the strategy that we are moving forward with in Iraq. I also come…”

“I come here to the floor this morning to speak about the strategy that we are moving forward with in Iraq. I also come here to say the debate over the last several days, including overnight, has been a very important debate and one we do need to have. Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the debate that is taking place here in the Senate. As the sun rises today across America, it is midafternoon in Baghdad, in Iraq. There the temperatures are close to 100 degrees as we speak. In Iraq today we know there are almost 160,000 men and women in uniform who are serving there, doing the duty they have been called to do on behalf of a grateful nation. So it is for them, for the 160,000 troops we have in Iraq today, for the 1.4 million veterans of both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, that we in the Senate should have a debate about our way forward in Iraq. I, therefore, say to my colleagues who have come to the floor as the night has gone on and have said things such as this is all about cut and run, this is about surrender, this is a political stunt, that they are wrong.”