Political Quotes

“I rise today to oppose H.R. 7. I believe it is penny-wise and pound-foolish and also very shortsighted, specifically on the U.N. peacekeeping. It seems to me the issue has evolved into a question of whether we have legitimate U.S. interests in United Nations peacekeeping. I would submit we do. First, in terms of the global marketplace. We have committed ourselves to NAFTA, we have committed ourselves to GATT. In the post-cold-war era we have hitched our wagon to the notion of a global marketplace. International instability, localized terrorism, all disrupt that global marketplace and those global markets. We have an interest in U.N. peacekeeping to the extent it helps us to maintain the global marketplace. Second, we have a vital U.S. interest in fighting terrorism on a multilateral basis. Terrorism is perhaps the biggest threat of the coming century. We only have to look to New York City to see the potential. Clearly, it is in our interest to have the ability to act multilaterally to combat terrorism. And third, burden sharing: It used to be very much in vogue to suggest that our allies and other countries around the world ought to join with us in bearing some of this responsibility. It seems to the extent we undermine U.N. peacekeeping by reducing our own commitment, we undermine the ability to command a multilateral force to protect U.S. interests.”