[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 22 (Tuesday, February 6, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H1215]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NEED TO SUPPORT OUR TROOPS

  (Mr. ELLISON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, soldiers don't choose to go to war. 
Soldiers do not allocate funds for which they use to fight the war. 
Soldiers may face danger, soldiers may risk their lives and sometimes 
lose their lives, but the least a Nation can do that sends a young 
person into harm's way is to fully support, fully equip and fully allow 
that young person to be successful to protect their own lives.
  And yet this administration has not done that. We failed in the early 
part of this war to provide Kevlar. This administration has failed to 
provide Humvees that were fully armored for our young people, and now 
what we see is tens of billions in backlog on maintenance so that the 
equipment that young people are relying on to protect their lives and 
to fully do their duty is unavailable.
  This is wrong, and we must call attention to this wrong, and we must 
do something about it now.

                          ____________________