Mark Souder: “first I think it is important that we review why we are in Colombia. Colombia is in our hemisphere and we cannot let it…”

“first I think it is important that we review why we are in Colombia. Colombia is in our hemisphere and we cannot let it be overtaken by the narcoterrorists. Violence there in Colombia is primarily because of U.S. and European drug addiction. Violence in the U.S., 20,000 deaths a year, far exceeds the terrorist deaths we have in the United States. Colombia is an important trading partner. Colombia is a model of democracy, the oldest in South America. Colombia is an energy supplier to the U.S., a supply that has been basically blocked by the narcoterrorist attacks. Now, the fundamental question. If we have all of these compelling reasons to be in Colombia, more than probably any other Nation where we have troops at this point, the question comes, why are we cutting it and what are we cutting? The gentleman from Massachusetts, who I consider a friend, we do not agree on this subject, but I know he has been down there as I have many times. We have looked at it. We do not agree on some fundamental facts. He sees the glass half empty, I see it half full. We have been making progress on human rights, we have been making progress on controlling the terrorism, and we need to make more aggressive progress and keep it up. His amendment proposes to cut the funding that provides the intelligence base with which to do the rest of the operations. He did not cut the funding to protect President Uribe, which is critical. The man is under daily attack.”