Angie Craig: “I stand in front of a desk in which a former Idaho senator by the name of William E. Borah stood. He was renowned for a…”

“I stand in front of a desk in which a former Idaho senator by the name of William E. Borah stood. He was renowned for a variety of things after the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. He was an outspoken isolationist and opposed Woodrow Wilson and led the battle to destroy the League of Nations. He was successful. We never joined the League of Nations. America came home from World War I, pulled up its bridges and it remained a relatively isolated island in a world until World War II. We know times have changed. We also know that great debates about foreign policy have occurred on the floor of the Senate down through the centuries. We have had a very valuable debate over the last 24 hours in large part about foreign policy but in a surprising way about military tactics. There is one role that we play here in the United States Senate and that role is a political role, it is not a military role. Not 535 generals. There are a few of us--I'm not one of those--who've had extensive military experience and who might have the kind of strategic knowledge necessary to make decisions that are general--that our generals could and are making on the field at this moment. But I am always surprised when we decide to become tacticians, when we decide to use the floor of the United States Senate as a command center, when we meet in secret rooms around the Capitol to decide how troop movements out to happen and what the rules of engagement ought to be.”