Benjamin Gilman: “Mr. Speaker, George Washington, our Nation's greatest military commander, said the most effective means of preserving…”

“Mr. Speaker, George Washington, our Nation's greatest military commander, said the most effective means of preserving peace is to prepare for war. Now, unfortunately, that is exactly what we must do today. There are those who say, let us pretend, let us pretend that if we do not defend ourselves against this missile threat from Saddam Hussein and others, that it simply won't happen. How novel, how naive. I believe that the U.S. must diligently prepare to meet and repel any threat from any source from enemies around the world, and this includes protecting our U.S. troops and our allies from the threat of Iranian missile attack in the Gulf region. We learned last summer, that has been debated today, that the Russians have helped the Iranians speed up the development and deployment of a missile capable of reaching U.S. troops. We have to act immediately. We know from the Gulf War that our troops are threatened by these. In fact, we lost more American lives because of a Scud missile than any other reason in the Gulf War. Israel also suffered from barbarous Scud attacks. Therefore I urge this House to learn from the tragic lessons of that war. Move to protect our brave men and women. Move to protect our allies. Support H.R. 2709.”