[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 125 (Thursday, September 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10347-H10348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              STOP PLAYING POLITICS AND SUPPORT OUR TROOPS

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address theHouse for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I would say to my colleague from Pennsylvania 
if this is not politics being played, I do not know what it is.
  We can have all the briefings we want, the fact of the matter is the 
support for our men and women ought to be forthcoming and it ought to 
be done the way the Senate did, passed it virtually unanimously. We 
ought to stop playing politics and support our troops. We ought to 
support our men and women. We ought not to let Saddam Hussein control 
the situation.
  Quite frankly, as someone who supported President Bush when it came 
to the Persian Gulf War, if President Bush had done what he should have 
done and removed Saddam Hussein we would not be in the position we are 
right now.
  So I think that we ought to stand behind our President. We ought to 
stand behind our men and women. We ought to not play politics just 
because there is an election coming up 6 weeks from now.
  We ought to do what is right. We ought to do what the Senate did, and 
we ought to pass some kind of resolution supporting our men and women.

[[Page H10348]]

The fact that we have been briefed or have not been briefed or have not 
been briefed enough is totally irrelevant. The fact is we should be 
supporting our President in a bipartisan fashion the way Congress has 
always done and support our men and women.

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