Jim Inhofe: “I think, with Christmas right around the corner, I can't think of a more appropriate time to deliver a short message…”

“I think, with Christmas right around the corner, I can't think of a more appropriate time to deliver a short message here. I have spoken several times about the situation in Ethiopia this year. It is a nation that is close to my heart for a lot of good reasons. It is close to other hearts around here. And if you are trying to understand the politics behind what is happening on the ground, it is very complicated. But what is not complicated is that human suffering happens, and it is heartbreaking. We are talking about women and children and the elderly people. And they are dying every day. And it is totally unnecessary. I pray the violence stops very quickly and call on those who feel the same way to join me if they agree with this. One of my big criticisms of our State Department is that they tend to go around the world telling other countries what they need to do instead of focusing on building lasting friendships and alliances. This pushes countries away from us instead of bringing them toward us. And we can't afford to do that anymore with the rising problems that we are having right now--we have been talking on the floor--with both China and Russia. And those countries are all too eager to pick up the pieces that we leave behind. And this is happening right now. We are faced with a situation where we have countries that are out there that have actually better resources than we do in many areas.…”