[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 194 (Tuesday, December 18, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S15828]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             TROOP FUNDING

  Mr. KYL. I will conclude in about 3 minutes.
  Mr. President, the point I was making is this: It is easy to lose 
sight of the larger objective when we get down into the details of 
specific legislation, as we must do. It is important to understand it 
and to get it right, but we also have to keep our eye on the ball. To 
mix metaphors, you have to look at the forest and not get drawn down 
into the trees too much. The forest here is a very dangerous enemy 
which means to do us harm. They have the means to do it. They have the 
will to do it. We are fighting them in two different kinds of 
conflicts. We are fighting them in hot war in Afghanistan and Iraq. It 
is a serious proposition. Young men and women have been sent to these 
places to do battle, to lay their lives on the line to carry out the 
mission on behalf of the American people to secure those places for 
liberty. Not all of them will come home. Not all of them will come home 
without casualty. This is serious business. It requires our full 
attention, with a knowledge of the nature of the threat.
  We cannot send them to do this job without being willing to provide 
them the funding they need to sustain their effort. Part of the debate 
today is ensuring that at least for the next 4 months, they will have 
enough money to get the job done.
  By the same token, we have an enemy all over the world, including in 
the United States, which is plotting, our intelligence community 
assesses with high confidence, to carry out a devastating attack if 
they have the opportunity to do so. It is critical that we use the 
assets we have available to collect intelligence against these 
organizations and people wherever they are. The best way to defeat the 
radical Islamists who mean to do us harm is to prevent it in the first 
place. That is what good intelligence allows us. That is why it is 
important for us to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Act.
  My point is, on two of the great issues that are before us today, we 
have a violent enemy that needs to be defeated. The best way to do that 
is to support our troops and our intelligence agencies and the men and 
women who are carrying out the missions we have asked of them in 
defeating this enemy.
  We have to understand the threat and understand that in America, in 
this great democratic Republic of ours, the American people are the 
center of gravity in any war. It is their support that is needed in 
order to achieve victory.
  Our young men and women on the battlefield and our people serving us 
in the intelligence community are counting on us, the representatives 
of the American people, to see to it that they have what they need to 
carry out their missions.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.

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