David Thomas: “I had the honor to travel last week with the Senator to Iraq and to Afghanistan. Frankly, it was a very interesting…”

“I had the honor to travel last week with the Senator to Iraq and to Afghanistan. Frankly, it was a very interesting meeting, one that makes us feel a little differently, being on the ground, than it is when we hear what we hear. I wish to make I think a fairly practical point, and that is that when we were there, obviously, we had a lot of security things to do. We have a lot of problems there. On the other hand, they have a plan that is being put into place for the schools, for the hospitals, for the government. They are making great progress. So we are talking here about $87 billion, $67 of which goes to support the troops. The other goes to try to get Iraq on its own feet. I have to suggest from a point of view of someone who is inclined not to want to spend a lot of money, if we really want to get them going on their own and get our troops out of there, the best way to do it is for us to take this money and to help them get on their feet. The biggest cost is maintaining our troops there. We can move that much more quickly if this $20 billion is put in the hands of our folks who are there now and we can move to get the Iraqis on their own feet and get our troops home more quickly than if we have to do this again to support the troops. I am talking about a very practical expenditure matter.”