I'm sure many of these issues have already been raised.

Yes, I know where they are. They're just too far away. We need more of them.

But we can--and must--do more.

I would hope you'd look at it, because I think the death benefit, as well as monthly benefits, health insurance, and educational assistance----

I know that it has a wonderful reputation for bipartisanship

I never got quite a clear answer to Senator Biden's question as to how many troops, Iraqi troops...

if our measure is to bring our troops home, and success is measured by whether Iraqis can secure their own circumstances, and if our best troops in the world are having trouble controlling the situation with 150,000 or so, it sounds like…

it's unlikely that I'd be sitting here asking you questions

I would urge that there is a clear signal by the administration in its budgeting process this time out that we are moving forward on this.

Is the resistance on those reforms coming simply from countries that are in the midst of development, or are we also seeing resistance from allies, like France and Germany and others?

it appears to be an entirely open-ended commitment.

I think that may be true, in fact, for just the National Guard, alone.

Absolutely, but again--I know I am out of time here, but that is true in Sudan.

I think it is to move forward. The concern that many of my constituents in Illinois express is that we went into Iraq, at least in their minds, because of a very specific threat of terror, not tyranny but terror.

I think part of the reason you were hesitant to talk about the torture issue yesterday had to do with the fact that you don't want to define 'torture' too much, because you want a little bit of wiggle room.

But my job, as a Senator, is to make sure that we're basing these decisions on facts and that I probe and not simply take it on faith that good decisions are being made.

What's the status of our troops, and what's our exit strategy?

And we are now going to be spending at least $200 billion in Iraq, and we have lost over 1,300 lives and it is counting.