Political Quotes

“I thank and commend my friend for his presentation. He is one of the hardest working subcommittee chairmen of the Appropriations Committee. If I may, I wish to be a bit personal. As some of my colleagues are aware, I did put on the uniform of this land and served in a war that was fought about six decades ago--ancient times. A few things happened between that time and this war. For example, although the regiment I was privileged to serve in had about the highest casualties per capita in the European conflict, it may be hard to believe but there was not a single double amputee survivor. Today, if one goes to Walter Reed Hospital, one will see dozens of double amputees. Why? Because of high tech. For example--I am being personal now--in my case, it took 9 hours to evacuate me. Nine hours? That is a long time. But in Italy, they have hills. We had no helicopters in those days. You had to be carried by hand. As a result, no brain injuries survived and no double amputees survived. So the families did not have the problem then that they are having now. There is another big difference. For example, if I wrote a letter as a soldier in Italy, that letter was censored by my commanding officer. I could not say anything about the war. All I could say is: Italy is a beautiful place. The food is fabulous. Nothing else. You could not say that my buddy Tom was shot. What they received at home were pleasant notes.…”