Political Quotes

“well over 6 months ago, Secretary of the Army, General Shinseki, was asked his opinion about how many soldiers we would need in Iraq. He said a couple hundred thousand. Today, we have about 180,000 troops in Iraq and Kuwait. The President's economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, was asked what he thought the cost of the war would be. He said around $200 billion. Today, we are nearing $160 billion. When those two gentlemen were asked their professional judgment, they were run out of town, ridiculed, their careers were run down for what they did. Today, as we look at what they said 6 months ago, they were right on both accounts. We do not do this enough in this town. So to General Shinseki and to Larry Lindsey, I want to thank you for your patriotism and I want to thank you for your honesty. Had we listened to you a long time ago, or at least had the willingness to have an honest debate, we would have known that we would have 187,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of war. And to Larry Lindsey, who predicted it would cost us about $200 billion of hard-earned taxpayer money, if we had listened to you rather than run you down, we would be honest and be able to handle this $87 billion that the President has requested. So, again, thank you for your patriotism and thank you for your honesty.”