Political Quotes

“I want to thank our ranking member for yielding and for her leadership and for this very important debate this morning. Mr. Speaker, let me just say, this debate, I believe, should have taken place at least 2 weeks prior to the war in Libya. The War Powers Act specifically forbids Armed Forces from engaging militarily in foreign lands for more than 60 days without congressional authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war. And we should really make no mistake about it: We are at war in Libya today. We have been actively fighting the Qadhafi regime in Libya since March 19, which is 97 days ago. No one in this House now would defend the deplorable actions of Colonel Qadhafi and the decades he has spent repressing the Libyan people. But no one should fail to recognize that the actions we have taken in Libya since March 19 amount to a war. Missile strikes, naval attacks, bombings of strategic military targets, all of these actions would be a declaration of war if a foreign country launched such attacks on any country, including our own. We have committed $1 billion and thousands of servicemen and -women to a new front. And regardless of one's position on our involvement in Libya, one point is crystal clear: This debate should have happened before we launched a war in Libya.…”