Political Quotes

“first, let me thank my colleagues, our chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Menendez; Senator Kaine, who has worked on this bill not for days and not for months but for years and never gave up hope; Senator Young; Senator Risch; and so many others--thank you, Senator Young--who worked so hard to make this day happen. Twenty years after the start of the Iraq war, the Senate finally, finally, finally declares today the time has come to repeal the legal authorities that began that war in the first place. This is bipartisan, and that is one of the beauties of this. Democrats and Republicans joined to say that it has been long enough, that the Iraq war has long been over. These authorizations for the use of force against Iraq are no longer necessary for our security. Make no mistake, this vote repealing the Iraq war powers is one for the history books. The American people, as we know, are tired of endless wars in the Middle East. Every year we keep these AUMFs on the books is another chance for future administrations to abuse them. We owe it to the over 4,000 who died in Iraq, to their families, to our servicemembers who served there, to our veterans, and all of the communities impacted by the war--we owe it to all of them to act. There is a very good chance that both Chambers can pass these AUMF repeals before the end of this year so this bill can be signed into law. This is not just going to be a one-House action.…”