Jack Kingston: “Mr. Chairman, we have had a good debate. There has been honest disagreement. There has been a high degree of sincerity…”

“Mr. Chairman, we have had a good debate. There has been honest disagreement. There has been a high degree of sincerity and integrity in the debate, but I rise in strong support of the Fowler-Danner bipartisan substitute amendment. I think to not do so is a recipe for resentment and not reconciliation, and at this time we need reconciliation. Three things I would like my colleagues to keep in mind as we vote. Number one, to deploy troops without a clear exit strategy is potentially disastrous. My good friend, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), had talked about Vietnam. If we go back in history and see the very early days of Vietnam, there was clearly no exit strategy; exactly what we have in front of us today. Number two, the administration has been vague, at best, about the cost of this operation. As an appropriator we spent two or three hours today debating a billion dollar disaster bill for Honduras. In that, we struggled to find money. The budget is tight. We do not have the budget just to spend money anyplace we want to. We have already spent in this administration $10 billion in the Balkans, and there seems to be no end in sight of our current commitment. Number three, as we all know, the military readiness question is a big one. Our military simply does not have the personnel to go every place that there is a problem.”