Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise to talk a little bit about the appropriations that are going on, in particular, the appropriations for the very, very long war in Afghanistan. Nobody knows when it's going to end. There's always a pretense. There's always a thought that tomorrow's going to be a better day. I was in the military in the sixties, and there was always this promise that we're just around the turn, and we're going to have peace and prosperity and have perfect results. Well, so far we have not had any perfect results in Afghanistan--there is a lot of unknown--and here we are appropriating even more money to continue this war. When you talk about war power and the resolution on how we go to war, it becomes very complex today. It was originally intended to be very simple: you went to war when there was a declaration; and the people, through their Congressman, voted up or down on whether you should have a war. Today, we slip and slide and we fall into these traps. We go to war under the U.N. banner and NATO. We never know why we go to war and what the goals are and when the war is over. And they persist. But there is one analysis made which bothers me a bit and, that is, even if there isn't a declaration of war, if some of the Members come along, as we have been for quite a few years, and say, you know, the Congress never really declared war, the argument they make is, well, as long as you fund a war, you give it credibility, and therefore you indirectly support the war.…”