Frank Lautenberg: “I want to discuss the situation in Iraq. Every day we see the terrible news about innocent Iraqis being killed, about…”

“I want to discuss the situation in Iraq. Every day we see the terrible news about innocent Iraqis being killed, about the terrible tension in the country, about our young people being attacked and killed and, frankly, the mess we are witnessing, which is painful to see. It came home today in a stark recitation, in a statement by Paul Bremer. Paul Bremer was sent to Iraq to be in charge of the transition as we tried to go from the culmination of what appeared to be the end of the violence until we got to a government that was going to be run by Iraqis on an interim basis and the vote coming up in January. But what we heard from Mr. Bremer was painful to hear, and it has to be particularly painful to President Bush and his administration. What he said was there were not enough troops to do their job. We believed that from the beginning. General Shinseki said it, and he was overruled by the Pentagon and by the Defense Secretary. He was fired for saying: We need more troops to do the job, Mr. President.”