Brian Jones: “I would like to thank President Obama for bringing all of our troops home from Iraq by the end of this year. This was an…”

“I would like to thank President Obama for bringing all of our troops home from Iraq by the end of this year. This was an unnecessary war that cost over $850 billion, in which over 4,400 Americans were killed and over 33,000 wounded. It is my hope that future Congresses will not accept misinformation from an administration as justification for sending our troops overseas to engage in combat. I am reminded of a quote from Rudyard Kipling's ``Epitaphs of War'': ``If they ask you why we died, tell them it is because our fathers lied.'' I hope this lesson stays with the future leaders of this country and they do everything they can to keep our young men and women from going to war unless it is absolutely justified. Before the district work period, I went to the new Walter Reed facility in Bethesda. I saw five marines, four of whom had lost both legs. A young lance corporal looked at me and asked, ``Why are we still in Afghanistan?'' I had to stand there, with his mother in the hospital room, and say, ``I don't know.'' My hope now is that this administration will bring our troops home before 2015. That is the timetable that Mr. Obama has agreed to. Just this weekend, President Karzai said, ``If fighting starts between Pakistan and the United States, we are beside Pakistan.…”