Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about our Nation's military in light of the legislation we are considering. I commend Chairman Levin and Ranking Member McCain and all those who are working on it. I just have some comments on a number of amendments and a few issues. For more than a decade now our Nation has been at war. In that time period, the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces have courageously served in Afghanistan and Iraq, assisted communities after disasters, and continued to provide stability across the world. As the military draws down from foreign engagements and strategic directions are reassessed, the Senate should do the same with regard to these issues. Unlike previous debates on the National Defense Authorization Act, this year the bill before us seeks to clarify the role of the military for the next decade or more. We are being asked to evaluate how large our military needs to be as we assess our near- and long-term threats. We are being asked to evaluate what equipment and resources this fighting force will need to keep the peace and to combat new aggressors, all while we are being asked to evaluate programs we have introduced over the past decade to support our servicemembers and their families. There are just a couple issues that are relevant to this debate, one which has particular significance for southwestern Pennsylvania. This is with regard to the military's force structure.…”