Boehner: Let’s Stop al Qaeda from Establishing “Permanent Bases” in Iraq

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) issued the following statement on the H.R. 2929, the latest stunt to use the House floor and our troops fighting the War in Iraq for partisan political purposes:

“Instead of wasting time with meaningless stunts and undermining our troops overseas through harmful rhetoric, Members of Congress should be united and focused on preventing al Qaeda from establishing permanent bases in Iraq and using them to stage terrorist attacks against the United States and our allies.

“The bill brought to the floor today represents yet another political stunt -- and an intellectually-dishonest one at that, because the United States has never proposed establishing a permanent base in Iraq or anywhere else. ‘No permanent bases’ is already the policy of the United States , and there is no such thing as a ‘permanent’ U.S. military base in foreign countries. All U.S. military bases abroad are subject to cooperative agreements with the respective host countries. The agreements can be altered or eliminated at any time.”