2008 MA Senate Debate: on Homeland Security


Jeff Beatty: Restructure forces, larger, & for liberation, not occupation

We don’t have a force structure that’s designed to support an occupation. Didn’t have it in 2003, and I would be surprised if we ever have it again. During the Cold War, maybe we had it. During World War Two we had millions of people in uniform. The Russians, who have occupied their share of countries--they had had millions of people in uniform. We only have hundreds of thousands of people in uniform.

Let’s talk about what my take is on how our military should be used. I think that the American military is small, should not be, and it won’t be structured for occupation. We should really be a military that when we use it, it’s a last resort, but it should be used for liberation not occupation. When you do that you’re able to go in, you try to keep as much of the host country infrastructure in place as you can. That’s what we did after World War II in Japan, we kept a lot of infrastructure in place.

Source: Dedham Times Interview on 2008 MA Senate Debate Jul 16, 2008

  • The above quotations are from 2008 Massachusetts Senate Debate between John Kerry and Jeff Beatty.
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Candidates and political leaders on Homeland Security:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 01, 2018