National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2008--Continued
Floor Speech
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008--Continued -- (Senate - July 17, 2007)
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I wish to thank my colleagues from Michigan and Rhode Island for their great leadership on this issue, and I want to say that I have a great deal of respect for my friend from Arizona. He said we shouldn't make this debate one of sound bites, and that is one of the reasons I rise.
Repeatedly, we have heard from the other side the slogan ``cut and run.'' When they use ``cut and run,'' that is the same kind of dangerous, nasty sloganeering that got us into this mess to begin with. The other side--some, anyway--seem to have a penchant for avoiding serious debate and instead use slogans as a sort of 2 by 4 to beat the other side into submission. Well, first, I want to assure my colleagues that is not going to happen. We believe strongly in our position, and it is right.
But I want to ask my colleagues who use the slogan ``cut and run,'' do they believe that 70 percent of the American people are for cut and run? Because 70 percent are for withdrawal within a year. Do they believe the brave soldiers who are risking their lives for us are cut and run when they say to us--and many have--that this policy makes no sense? Do they accuse the parents of the loved ones who have died and who then say they do not believe we should be there to be for cut and run?
Let us have a serious debate, as we have had tonight, last night, and this morning. Let us have a serious debate, as we have had, but let us not resort to these slogans, and let us not let fear overtake policy. That is why we got in the mess in the first place.
Let me just review for my colleagues what Levin-Reed does. Levin-Reed says that we begin to withdraw in 120 days, complete the withdrawal by April, and then leave what force is necessary for counter terrorism, training, and force protection. It will be a much smaller force, most of them will be out of harm's way, but it is decidedly not cut and run.
I want to ask my colleagues one more question. When the President, in September, decides to withdraw troops, which he will have to do, given both the facts on the ground and the pressures from his side of the aisle, are those colleagues going to accuse the President of cut and run?
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