Political Quotes

“I rise to talk about the rotation of troops in Iraq that has occurred over the last year or so and the rotation that is being scheduled for the next year. There has been a statement by the Kerry campaign, by Senator Kerry, to the effect that there is a secret plan to call up a lot more troops and to do some wild thing after the election. That is not the case, Mr. Speaker. And, in fact, we held a hearing in July in which the Department of Defense walked through their plan for the next phase or the next rotation of troops into Iraq. And let me for the record just go over what has taken place. The first half of this chart showing Iraq shows the present configuration of major ground forces in Iraq; and what we had before this, of course, was the 101st Airborne up north in the northern area. We had the 4th Infantry Division in the Tikrit area. That is over here. We had the 1st Armored Division in the heart of Baghdad, and we had out to the western area, all the way to the Syrian border, the 82nd Airborne Division. That rotation took place in which those forces were replaced by the forces that are there right now.”