Jim Webb: “This is an amendment that is focused squarely on supporting our troops who are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It…”

“This is an amendment that is focused squarely on supporting our troops who are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It speaks directly to their welfare and to the needs of their families by establishing minimum periods between deployments for both our regular and reserve components. I offer this amendment having grown up as a military family member, having watched a father deployed, as one who has served as a marine and been deployed, as one who has had a family member deployed in this war, and also as someone who, for 3 years, was privileged to oversee our National Guard and Reserve programs as Assistant Secretary of Defense, during which time I also spent a good bit of energy looking at mobilization issues, including how manpower flow issues were predicted to have occurred if we went to war. The manpower policies that are feeding the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan presently are unprecedented in our history.”