Political Quotes

“I want to thank the soon-to-be ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Engel, for yielding this time, and I want to thank him for his eloquent opposition to H.R. 6649. This is not a noncontroversial bill. I know it's being brought here on suspension as though it is, and I'm sure in the past when we've had these transfers of vessels, excess defense materials and so forth, often that is a noncontroversial action to take. In this case, it's anything but noncontroversial, and I'm surprised, frankly, that the majority would bring the bill to the floor in this form. Turkey is the problem here. There are vessels that are being transferred to Turkey. These are vessels that apparently are obsolete from our standpoint, surplus material that can go to them. And, yes, Turkey is a NATO ally, but it's a problematic ally at best. At critical moments over a period of many years, when the United States has looked to its ally Turkey for assistance for some critical support, Turkey has been absent. You've heard already, discussed at length here, the unlawful occupation of Cyprus. We're talking about 38 years of unlawful occupation of our ally Cyprus. The adventurism of Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean and its recent conduct towards Israel has been detailed here at length. {time} 1330 So what you have is, yes, an American ally but one that has created some real problems for us and is a destabilizing actor in the eastern Mediterranean.…”