Political Quotes

“Well, it is really an important point to underscore, and I appreciate your saying it, which we all agree, that there is nobody on whatever side of the debate you're in about Iraq who doesn't understand that our troops have served with extraordinary bravery and courage. They have performed. It is really up to the policymakers. It is up to the administration, who makes the policy. It is up to Congress, who makes the policy, the Senate. It is up to the policymakers, who send our military to do the job to make the right judgments and right decisions about when they should be sent, under what conditions they ought to be sent, and what their mission is. Mr. Speaker, one of the real sad failings is that the mission here has changed so many times, nobody knows what it is anymore. Seventy percent of the American people now understand that whatever it is that we have tried to do in Iraq hasn't worked. The Iraqi Government has not stood up. We have spent lives, our brave troops have given their lives, thousands and thousands of wounded, at a huge cost, because so far we have spent about half a trillion dollars in direct costs for the war in Iraq. Half a trillion dollars. That has got so many zeroes that I really have trouble figuring out and contemplating wrapping my brain around what half a trillion dollars is. That is $500 billion. That is an awful lot of money to experience what we have experienced in Iraq, because it's clear now that the war hasn't made us safer and more secure.”