Political Quotes

“I will close this debate, unless others seek recognition, by reiterating my concern is for the American service person--soldier, sailor, airman, and marine--who at some point in time, because of the articles of this treaty, "an attack on one is an attack on all", our service persons could be in the foxhole fighting, repelling that attack with someone who is not trained, not equipped, cannot communicate and all the other problems we have had in seeking a uniformity of standards and military capabilities among the NATO forces. We are putting our people at risk. We are asking our taxpayers, again, to spend enormous sums of money as we did in the Balkan operations. I supported the Balkan operations. We did the right thing: 70 percent of the combat missions, 50 percent of the airlift. This is not the lone dissenter, I suppose, in the Senate speaking. This is the Secretary General of NATO, Lord Robertson, whom my colleague from Indiana and I have met through many years, former Minister of Defense from Great Britain, now Secretary General of NATO, who said the following. And I will quote from Secretary General Robertson's speech on NATO's future at the February 2000 Wehrkunde Conference in Munich: The United States must have partners who can contribute their fair share to operations which benefit the entire Euro-Atlantic community.”