Norman D. Dicks: “they have proliferated all over the world. This is not something that is just in a few countries. We have them in North…”

“they have proliferated all over the world. This is not something that is just in a few countries. We have them in North Korea, Iran, Iraq, China. We have them in Bosnia, where Captain O'Grady was shot down. Another thing here, for some of the crowd of American people saying, ``Are these two Congressmen just up here by themselves?'' I feel very proud of the fact that without any request from me or anybody else who is a B-2 supporter, seven former Secretaries of Defense wrote the President of the United States, and this is unprecedented in the 17 years I have been on the Subcommittee on National Security of the Committee on Appropriations, and said, ``Mr. President, please keep this line open. This is the kind of weapon system that we are going to need in the future. Twenty of them simply is not enough.'' One of those colleagues, Mr. Speaker, former Congressman Dick Cheney was the one who made the decision with Les Aspin, our former colleague, former Secretary of Defense, now deceased, to limit this to 20. There was absolutely no military rationale for that decision. It was strictly a decision made on what Congress would go along with.”