Political Quotes

“I come first to support the distinguished chair of the Appropriations Committee in her endeavor to pass a continuing resolution. I, specifically, want to speak to support the President's request for authorization to stand up a title 10 overt, train and equip mission for vetted moderate Syrian opposition. The hearing I held yesterday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee laid out specifics of how the President is moving forward in building the anti-ISIL coalition. We will undertake targeted airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria. We will train and equip a Syrian opposition force committed to a pluralistic, free Syria. This is a multifaceted plan, and we heard both from Secretary Kerry and a second panel of regional experts that coalition partners are ready to contribute in real terms and not just empty words. The ISIL threat is grave and it is urgent. We must stand with our partners in the region to confront this barbarism in the interests of all of the individuals being brutalized by ISIL but also because regional stability and U.S. Security demand it. Training and equipping a fighting Syrian force is one urgent element in the broader plan. We in the Senate must provide this authority, as our colleagues in the House did yesterday. In Iraq we have the Iraqi security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga forces committed to combating ISIL and partnering with us to do so. At this point in time we do not have such a force to partner with inside of Syria.…”