Neil Abercrombie: “In that context, then, you have indicated, yes, a Marshall Plan might be in order, but that presumes that the fighting…”

“In that context, then, you have indicated, yes, a Marshall Plan might be in order, but that presumes that the fighting has ended. The fighting has not ended. It is nowhere near ending. You cannot make an investment in somewhere, where again I will quote, most of the city lay in smoking ruins. Another quote: ``Tanks and armored vehicles, their turret guns blazing in all directions, finished the sweep through the city.'' We are destroying everything in our path. And then the only thing that I see is that, well, we will be responsible, the United States is going to have to be responsible for the rebuilding. Who? Another Halliburton? Another series of projects to be laid out? You cannot guarantee that the people who are going to do the building will be safe. So all of this is a fantasy. It is a delusion, that somehow we are going to succeed with this. My final point on that is that it is the military itself then at that point that will have difficulties because we are not going to be able to recruit. Despite the happy face that has been put on this, the Reserves are falling behind in their recruitment and retention.”