Ted Poe: “There has been a consistent message that has been put forth by Congress that we are not interested in permanent bases in…”

“There has been a consistent message that has been put forth by Congress that we are not interested in permanent bases in Iraq, but that should not diminish our need to have a presence there at this time. We must not jeopardize United States security interests. At issue here is the definition of the word ``permanent.'' No one can quite agree on what that really means. This bill is similar to one we passed earlier when we passed language in the supplemental on this topic. The point is, we do not intend to be in Iraq permanently. We are not interested in Iraqi oil. I do believe our military is stretched too thin throughout the world. We literally have a U.S. troop presence in almost every country on the globe, from military bases in Germany to Korea and other places in between. Some of those bases seem like they are permanent because we have been in those areas for so long. The issue here is over permanent basing in Iraq. We should have installations or naval ships in an area where our troops can quickly deploy, and Iraq really should be no different. But we've never set out to occupy any nation. We are not an imperial Nation. We do not intend to violate the sovereignty of another nation by occupying it. This has always been United States policy. The United States came to liberate, not conquer, Iraq, and this is our policy.”