Political Quotes

“The gentleman is correct that this is a time of deficits and concerns about spending, but he is not correct that this doesn't hurt our national security. He also states that our troops in Europe are not needed, and that is absolutely not the case. Those troops that are there not only protect us and our European allies, but they also are essential to the operations that we're supporting around the globe, including the important operations in Afghanistan and in Iraq. {time} 2200 He claims this amendment will save money, but in fact, this will increase our costs as we look to how we serve our allies, how we initiate our ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how we support our men and women in uniform. The essential problem with this amendment is that it's arbitrary. Our troop strengths are based on extensive studies. There are whole books written about how you look to assessing threats, how you look to our overall assets, how you support the capabilities that we have in supporting our national defense. These are just arbitrary numbers that have been picked as to our withdrawal from Europe. But it goes further. Besides having the great effect of reducing the reassurance of our allies in the region, this amendment goes further and sets troop limits from 2013 through 2016.…”