Chris Murphy: “Mr. Meek is very right. It is going to be in a bipartisan way. And there are moments when maybe public opinion and…”

“Mr. Meek is very right. It is going to be in a bipartisan way. And there are moments when maybe public opinion and things you hear back in the district don't always match up with maybe the things that you hear from the experts on that particular issue. That is inevitable in public service. And there are choices to be made, and inevitably your obligation in the end is to side with the people that you represent. But on this issue there is a growing hegemony of opinion that backs up public opinion within the military community. Mr. Meek quoted some of the leaders of both parties who have come out against this plan for escalation, but the military has come out against this plan as well. Let me just give a quick quote of Colonel Paul Hughes, who was the first person that was put in charge of strategic planning of the U.S. occupation in Baghdad, the first person on the ground to start planning on how we were going to keep Baghdad stable. We obviously failed pretty miserably in that mission, but here is what he said about the President's plan to escalate this war. He said: ``Just sending more troops to Baghdad is like pouring more water in the sands of Al Anbar. It's going to disappear without accomplishing anything.'' And that is what we have heard over and over again. There may be a number of troops that you could put into Baghdad or, lest we forget, the 12 other, 11 other major areas of conflict in Iraq. There might be a number, but it certainly isn't 21,000.”