Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman; and I am reminded also, as I look down through the last several days in October, in fact starting with October 2, Iraqi Army soldiers captured bombers in Fallujah; October 5, Iraqi troops found and cleared improvised explosive devices in Fallujah; October 5, Iraqi soldiers seized a large weapons cache hidden by anti-Iraq forces in a school in Ramadi; October 8, Iraqi Army forces detained a suspected Iraqi bomber in Fallujah. As we go down the line, we see the accomplishments of this force, which is a young new force, because we did not want to use the senior officers of Saddam Hussein's military. We needed to grow a force from scratch from this population. It has been tough. It has been rough. But these great Americans in the 2nd Marine Division, the 101st Airborne, the 3rd ID, which is going to be replaced shortly by the 4th ID in Baghdad, and all the rest of these tremendous troops who are serving, as we realized after New Orleans, are people with great talents, great ingenuity and great creativity. They can not only carry the day in a fire fight; they can also carry the day in training other personnel. The accomplishments of the new Iraqi military as it stands up and takes over these areas of responsibility, like Najaf, which previously was a very hot area, that is a reflection on the capability of our troops, an important capability, which is the capability to train others.…”