Extraordinary Ambassador

Floor Speech

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Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, during the President's Day
break, I was grateful to chair a House Armed Services Committee
delegation to the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Jordan,
and Iraq.

With Congressmen Brad Ashford, Seth Moulton, and Elise Stefanik, we
met world leaders in the midst of forcefully protecting their citizens
in the Global War on Terrorism.

Coordinating the itinerary were House professional staffers Pete
Villano and Lindsay Kavanaugh, with military input by Major Brad Grane,
U.S. Army, Colonel Dan Greenwood, U.S. Marine Corps, and Major Tony
Garofano, U.S. Marine Corps.

At each step we were greeted and briefed by experienced, dedicated,
and enthusiastic U.S. Ambassadors, including Barbara Leaf at Abu Dhabi
in the UAE, Michael McKinley in Afghanistan, Alice Wells in Jordan,
Douglas Silliman in Kuwait, and Stuart Jones in Iraq. Each has
recruited talented foreign-service officers to promote warm relations
with our allies in the Middle East and Central Asia.

A key way to protect American citizens at home from terrorists is to
promote stable, prosperous, and unified allies abroad. Radical
Islamists have declared war on Americans and plan to exterminate Jews.
Moreover, in the last ten days, they have slaughtered their fellow
Muslims from Peshawar, Pakistan, in a mosque, to burning alive over 30
innocent civilians in al-Baghdadi, Iraq, while beheading 21 Egyptian
Coptic Christians in Libya, and murdering Jews in Copenhagen.
In conclusion, God Bless our Troops, and may the President by his
actions never forget September 11th in the Global War on Terrorism.

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