Political Quotes

“I attended the same classified briefing as the Republican Senate leader, and I listened carefully as the administration presented the realities of Afghanistan, and I was drawn to a historical analogy that was best captured in a short verse by Rudyard Kipling. It goes like this: When you're wounded and down on the Afghan plain, and the women come out to cut up your remains, just roll on your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your God like a soldier. That stark verse was a description of what happened to the British Empire when they felt that moving into Afghanistan would be part of their record of conquest. They learned otherwise. The retreat from Kabul has been reported over and over, but it basically was a retreat that killed every remaining British soldier, every member of their family, save one. They wanted one person, the Afghans did, to return to Queen Victoria and tell her what happened when they threw the British out of Afghanistan. A similar story can be told by the Soviet Union--now Russia--when they occupied Afghanistan with visions of changing that country forever to a Russian communist mode. They left bitterly disappointed, paying a heavy price. So 20 years ago, in the wake of 9/11, with 3,000 innocent Americans dead, we debated the issue on this floor as to whether the United States would follow the British and Russians into Afghanistan. I was here. I was asked to vote, and I remember why I voted yes. It was simple.…”