Willie Hefner: “I am not questioning the fact we need to have hearings, but it seems to me we oversimplify when we say we are going to…”

“I am not questioning the fact we need to have hearings, but it seems to me we oversimplify when we say we are going to decide right here what is going to be the policy of the Saudis as far as allowing us to do things for the protection of our troops. To me this goes just beyond where foreign policy ought to end. Everybody, I do not know of any person in this building that does not want to support our troops and see that they are not put in harm's way. But I just wanted to remind the Members that there was not a hue and outcry in this body when 240 of our fine Marines were killed in their sleep. And we did not personally hold President Reagan, as we should not have done, we did not personally hold him responsible for the deaths of these fine young men. In this well the other day, the gentleman from Pennsylvania said, if we lose one person, we are going to hold the President of the United States, we are going to hold him personally to blame for losing these lives.”