Dan Burton: “I want to start off by commenting on the lady's speech that was just made. I understand her position. War is hell. It is…”

“I want to start off by commenting on the lady's speech that was just made. I understand her position. War is hell. It is a horrible thing. We have been out to Bethesda and Walter Reed Hospital, and we have seen the damage that war has done to a lot of our young people. It is a terrible thing. It was a terrible thing in all the other conflicts we have been involved in where people have been killed and maimed, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War. War is horrible. Nobody wants war. We all want our troops home as quickly as possible. There is no question about that. Where we differ is what this war is all about and what will happen if we do not do what is necessary. Yesterday, a Sunni insurgent coalition in Iraq announced an Islamic cabinet, and they named an al Qaeda leader as their Minister of War. Throughout this whole debate over these years, the opponents on the other side have said al Qaeda was not involved in Iraq, that we did not have any reason to go in there. Al Qaeda was involved in Iraq. Osama bin Laden was involved in Iraq. The people that bombed the USS Cole, the World Trade Center, our embassies around the world were in Iraq, and now they have appointed a war minister over there who is the head of al Qaeda in Iraq today. So there is a world war against terrorism. Al Qaeda is the main leader of that war against the United States and the rest of the world. It is a war that we cannot afford to lose.”