Political Quotes

“Turkey may need assistance, but today is not the day to approve that assistance. Today we send a clear signal to America and the rest of the world that we support our troops. Turkey has not supported our troops. The U.S. over the last number of months has consistently and frequently consulted with Turkey as to the direction of the war with Iraq and the role that Turkey would take. Turkey allowed us to make improvements to their infrastructure. We invested millions of dollars, contracted with Turkish companies to work, yet they would not allow us to deploy our troops. The Pentagon supported their economy by purchasing Turkish-made apparel for U.S. troops for 1 year, waiving a Buy America provision, sacrificing American jobs for Turkish jobs. The U.S. continues to promise protection to Turkey in the event of an attack. That is more than what we can say Turkey did for us. Turkey has been an ally for a long time. So maybe sometime in the future would be the appropriate time to come back and take a look at how to help a friend with tough economic times. But in this vote, where we are supporting our troops in our war effort, this is not the place to reward Turkey. Let us remove this from the bill. Let us make this a clean bill that signals to our troops that we stand with them and that we will be with them through the conclusion of this war effort.”