Jon Kyl: “I am going to respond to my colleague from Massachusetts. He has made a pretty vicious attack, I would say, on the…”

“I am going to respond to my colleague from Massachusetts. He has made a pretty vicious attack, I would say, on the President of the United States, contending that he has not leveled with the American people, that he has to begin telling the truth about what is going on in Iraq. These are very serious charges, and I would like to try to respond to them. The Senator from Massachusetts began by a recitation of why, in his view, 'the outlook is so bleak,' to use his quotation, and why he concluded that 'we're losing the war,' another quotation from the Senator. I see in the Senator's remarks, and others that I have heard recently, a steely determination to keep hopelessness alive. I do not think that should be the policy of the United States. The President has a much better vision about how to bring the war against militant Islam to a conclusion. There were no constructive alternatives, as my colleagues will recall, from the comments of the Senator from Massachusetts. There were no ideas about how we could do better. It was just an attack on the President and an assertion that we are losing the war, the implications of which were left hanging. When he said the President has this attitude of shooting first and asking questions later, then perhaps we need to recall that we have already been attacked. We did not shoot first. We were attacked viciously on 9/11 and it changed everything about our approach to the war against militant Islam.”