Political Quotes

“I thought we would talk tonight about several things, about our recent several CODELs to Iraq, to the theater, and also about the defense bill, and lastly, about the resources, the great American asset that ties all of our defense issues together, and that is the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States. I thought, Mr. Speaker, maybe I would just start off with my great colleagues, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), in just talking about a couple of those great men and women in uniform. I wanted to read a citation, Mr. Speaker, because we have had a lot of talk, lots of discussion and enormous publicity about the prison mess over the last several months. And one way we have countered that image that I think has wrongfully been splashed against lots of folks in uniform is by talking about the great heroism of a number of those people. And I remind my colleagues that we had some 16,000 Bronze Stars awarded in Iraq, some 127 Silver Stars, and I thought that tonight just to start off I would talk about a couple of the commendations that have been given to heroes in that very difficult theater in Iraq.”