Political Quotes

“I was talking about how unusual this war is. Twelve and a half percent of the wounded have eye injuries. I don't know how many we have lost track of because we don't have recent reports, but more than 35,000 have been injured, and 12 rac{1}{2} ext{ percent of them have eye injuries. That is how this war is different than other wars in one way. Last week, a young marine came to my office, 21 years old. He entered the Marines when he was 17. He came to my office with his wife and baby daughter. He had been on his second tour in Iraq. His legs were blown off. I said, ``What happened?'' He said, ``We went to a house where we thought there were some people doing some things that we needed to take a look at. We walked out and somebody detonated a bomb and blew me up.'' He said it had been difficult to adjust. He was holding his baby in the wheelchair. His wife was over his shoulder. Senator Durbin was with me when we visited this young man. Senator Durbin told me today in the cloakroom that he has trouble getting this image out of his mind. We all do. A 21-year-old hero, who will live the rest of his life with these debilitating wounds of war. He is not the only one, as we know. As if the toll of lives and limbs were not enough, this war also costs billions from our Treasury. We were told by the Joint Economic Committee earlier this week that the war--with the $200 billion he requested--all borrowed money, with a credit card that has no expiration date and certainly no limit.”