Political Quotes

“we set a personnel ceiling of 4,000 Americans in Vietnam 6 months after the enactment and 3,000 within a year; in Somalia we did the same. In Rwanda we did the same. And interestingly enough, the congressional reference service says, and I quote, ``With respect to your question regarding the number of instances when the Congress has utilized the War Powers Resolution, since its enactment in 1973, to compel the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from foreign deployments, we can cite no single specific instance when this has occurred.'' So it is a useless anachronism and we ought not to have it on the books. No Supreme Court test is even possible. Several attempts have been made to test it. The courts have said they are not justifiable. It did not stop what we did in Somalia, it did not stop what we did in Haiti. We had a vote on Desert Storm but nobody conceded that was pursuant to the War Powers Resolutions. It provides a false hope to our adversaries; it is confusing. My amendment does not just wipe the books clean of the War Powers Resolution, it requires adequate, timely, prompt consultation with Congress, and notice of what the President is going to do, and reporting, comprehensive reporting. There is a Presidential waiver, but that is for the Entebbe sort of situation and we still hold the ultimate weapon which is the purse.”