Ted Poe: “Thank you, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. I appreciate your leadership and the time you have given me to talk about this really…”

“Thank you, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. I appreciate your leadership and the time you have given me to talk about this really important resolution, the resolution of retreat from combat. You know, we in this House, in this warm House tonight at 5 minutes after the hour of 10 o'clock, we view this resolution from our own personal opinions. But maybe we should view something, and this resolution in particular, from a historical standpoint, for history has no opinion but is a teacher of hard facts of retrospect. You know, this debate is not new to Congress. Years ago, after 5 long years of war, this Nation found itself at war with the greatest empire on Earth, Great Britain. The war of independence was not going well in 1781 and 1782. It looked bleak. The Commander in Chief, George Washington, had lost most of the battles he was engaged in. Public opinion was at an all-time low during the war. There were even mutinies in the Army from the Pennsylvania volunteers and the New Jersey volunteers. There was talk in the press of even reuniting with Great Britain, of all things, forming a truce and going back to be with the British. There were preachers of gloom, doom, despair and defeatism. There were generals on the battlefield that didn't like the way George Washington was handling himself as Commander in Chief and preaching to the public and their troops, We can't beat the British. The debate was not new to this House, Mr. Speaker. Congress wanted to cut funding.…”