Political Quotes

“It was October 11, 2002--24 years ago. There was a vote on this Senate floor. I was here. The vote was an important one in the history of this country and maybe one of the most important votes I ever cast as a Member of the Senate. What was the question? The question before the Senate: Will we go to war? Are we ready to invade Iraq? President George W. Bush had told us that we needed to do it because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which could obliterate our allies and friends and eventually threaten the United States. The vote took place at about midnight. The floor was full because of the importance of the vote. I remember it well. Twenty-three of us voted no--1 Republican, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, and 22 Democrats. Three of us who voted no that night are still here, 24 years later. We invaded Iraq. What did we find? No weapons of mass destruction-- none. They searched long and hard, as the intelligence Agencies had told us they were there and were a threat to the United States. We stayed in Iraq for year after year after year afterward, and 4,500 American lives were lost in that war of Iraq. I remember going to visit Walter Reed Hospital and meeting the veterans who came back from Iraq. Most of them had lost a limb because of IEDs. There were terrible stories of what they had endured and some of them had scars from that war that they would never, ever live down. There were many heroes, too, among our military. They did their duty.…”