Steve Pearce: “Thank you, Mr. King. I appreciate the work that you're doing on this issue on the eve of 9/11. It behooves us all to…”

“Thank you, Mr. King. I appreciate the work that you're doing on this issue on the eve of 9/11. It behooves us all to remember exactly what happened. It behooves us all to remember the loss of that 1 day, and like my friend from Georgia says, over $2 trillion in loss from America's asset base that day, and even worse, the 3,000 lives that were lost. I went to Iraq on Thursday evening. We left after votes on Thursday, flew all night long, and ended up in Iraq on Saturday and Sunday. And we spent the night in Baghdad on Saturday night and Sunday visiting with the troops and visiting with Iraqis. I was struck by the cautious optimism that General Petraeus related to us today, a very cautious optimism that the trend lines are favorable, that we're seeing some lessening of violence, and that's the sort of things that I found there from the troops in the country. I wanted to visit with our soldiers one on one. I had the opportunity to ride into Baghdad with troops who were going for the first time. I sat across from a Captain Serrano from Chicago and was able to talk to her about the 2-year-old daughter that waits at home for her. Her husband, who is engaged in going through sheriff's training to hopefully work for the sheriff's department there. And we're asking the sacrifice of young men and women daily to be there and stand in the gap to stand between the terrorists and ourselves. I have one of my friends who says, I hear America is at war.…”