Political Quotes

“this week, the Senate finally passed the latest of the Iraq war supplemental funding. The $82 billion package brings the war's total cost to date, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, to $300 billion. This month will be the 2-year anniversary of the President's speech on the U.S.S. Lincoln announcing, ``mission accomplished.'' So what has ``mission accomplished'' and $300 billion got us so far? We have defeated Saddam Hussein's regime, yet we find ourselves marred in an endless occupation. This past January, we witnessed a successful election in Iraq, yet progress on developing a functioning government has been slow at best. Terrorism and insurgency are as strong as ever and continue to be escalating at certain times. Today, we saw that in a very serious way with more than 79 Iraqis killed in a terrorist act. Over the weekend, we lost again a number of our fellow citizens, bringing the total of U.S. soldiers killed to nearly 1,600 and 12,000 wounded. The economy in Iraq is stalled. The civil society cannot form a consensus, and millions of Iraqis remain without the basic services and functions of a civil society and government. Our brave men and women are fulfilling their obligation and their duty to the United States Armed Forces and continue to fight valiantly, but the battle has taken its toll. As I said, nearly 1,600 fellow citizens have been killed.…”