Richard Shelby Quotes
We need to eradicate these terrorist groups, wherever they are. If we failed to do it, we are just waiting for the next.
Shelby, Richard. Statement on ISIS. The Birmingham News, 10 Sept. 2014, p. A1.
He and the government had just given the OK for a targeted assassination of the Palestinian terrorist who had designed the bombs and recruited the suicide bombers which led to the deaths of over 100 Israelis. Shortly thereafter, a cell phone the engineer was using blew up killing him by the same method whereby he had killed so many. This was the first targeted assassination of terrorist leaders, which then became an operational policy.
This quotation is used by some non Americans to illustrate a hypocrisy and double standard that they see the United States arguing for in dealing with terrorism. The PKK terrorists have been infiltrating from Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) into Turkey for years. Kissinger and most American leaders tried to dissuade the Turks from militarily moving into Iraq to cut off the terrorists there and deal the border. They preferred an international policy approach. However, after 9-11 when the U.S. mainland was attacked by terrorists, the United States not only reacted unilaterally, but invaded Afghanistan and Iraq supposedly to nullify the terrorists.
Richard Craig Shelby is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Alabama. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 as a Democrat, he was the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, succeeding Thad Cochran. He previously served as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. He is the longest-serving U.S. Senator from Alabama, having surpassed John Sparkman's previous record in March 2019.
