Mark Dayton: “last Friday, on Veterans Day, President Bush attacked those of us who questioned or criticized his conduct of the Iraq…”

“last Friday, on Veterans Day, President Bush attacked those of us who questioned or criticized his conduct of the Iraq war. Once again, he tried to portray his critics as opposing our own troops or aiding their enemies. Once again, he was wrong. Once again, he tried to blame others for his mistakes and for the failures of his policies--mistakes and failures that have trapped 158,000 of America's best and bravest soldiers in Iraq for over 2\1/2\ years, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with no end in sight. Let's be clear that every person in this Senate supports our troops 1,000 percent. We provided every dollar requested for defense authorizations, appropriations, and supplementals with overwhelming bipartisan and often unanimous support. Some of us have tried to provide more funding than the administration would support for our returning troops and veterans. We have never accused them of being against our troops or un-American. Together, on the Senate Armed Services Committee on which I am proud to sit, Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly asked our civilian and military commanders: What more do you need to win this war as soon as possible? What do you need to bring our troops home as safely and quickly as possible, with the victory that they won in 3 weeks in the spring of 2003 secured, finally, by the Iraqis? Tell us what you need, and it is yours. This Senate has not failed our troops.…”