Bill Delahunt: “Thank you, my friend. I hope that you had a pleasant break. I know you were working, but I hope that you enjoyed your…”

“Thank you, my friend. I hope that you had a pleasant break. I know you were working, but I hope that you enjoyed your stay at home. Professor Allison's observations really echo the conclusion that was reached by a bipartisan group of experts, including many from the administration of President Reagan, and that conclusion was that the United States is losing the war on terror. We read that our friends on the other side of the aisle have made a political decision to talk about national security, to talk about terror and what they have accomplished. Well, the truth is, nothing has been accomplished, except the loss of thousands of American lives with a financial cost going on some half a trillion dollars. You know, one only has to watch the nightly news. I was in the cloakroom earlier and watched the national news. It was depressing, it was sad, it was tragic. What is going on in Baghdad today and all over Iraq is an orgy of violence and blood-letting. We hear these distinctions between sectarian strife, between insurgents versus the terrorists. I still can't quite figure them out. All I know is that lives are being lost, that we Americans are taking this burden on by ourselves. And don't talk to me about the coalition. It is an American burden almost exclusively. Let me just read to you this report from The Washington Post. And, again, this is a survey taken of some 116 experts.…”