John Drake: “I recognize that this is a contentious issue. I also recognize that some of us will never agree on the question of Iraq…”

“I recognize that this is a contentious issue. I also recognize that some of us will never agree on the question of Iraq and whether our presence there is justified. However, I believe there is common ground, and I introduced a substitute amendment during the Armed Services Committee that highlights the common ground. My substitute amendment, which is modeled after Senator Lindsey Graham's alternative to what has come to be known as the Webb amendment, replaced the base text with a sense of Congress that the Department of Defense should strive to meet certain goals concerning dwell time between troop deployment. My amendment maintained the goals that are outlined in the underlying bill. My amendment represents an alternative that touches on the issues that all of us, Republicans and Democrats, agree on. We all agree that our troops need to rest between deployment. We all agree that a rested fighting force is an effective fighting force. We all agree, hopefully, that these goals should not be limited to troops deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, which the underlying bill unfortunately does. We all agree that this committee must continue, as it has done so effectively in the past, providing the resources to our troops that they need to do their jobs effectively and safely. I believe this bill creates an unrealistic expectation on the part of our families and our military members.”