Joe Manchin: “I rise today to discuss the gravest and most important issue we can debate in Congress. I am here to talk about…”

“I rise today to discuss the gravest and most important issue we can debate in Congress. I am here to talk about America's involvement in the Middle East and President Obama's plan to defeat ISIS. Make no mistake, we must defeat and destroy ISIS. But how we destroy them is what we must get right. I applaud the President for presenting a plan to the American people. I support airstrikes against ISIS. I support providing humanitarian aid. I support cutting off terrorist funding sources. Doing these things has already helped to prevent genocide and has already begun to roll back ISIS's gains in Iraq. I also support in engaging the world community, but most importantly Turkey and the Arab League nations. Unfortunately, I have not seen signs from the region that tell me we have their full support. This should be an Arab ground war and a U.S. air war, but I cannot and will not support arming or training the Syrian opposition forces. I did not come to this decision easily. I spoke with military and foreign policy experts. I attended classified briefings and asked questions of this administration--but, most importantly, I studied our history. We have been at war in that part of the world for the past 13 years. If money and military might could have made a difference, it would have by now.…”