David Thomas: “obviously one of the issues before us and the issue we will be grappling with for the remainder of the week-- perhaps…”

“obviously one of the issues before us and the issue we will be grappling with for the remainder of the week-- perhaps longer--is the question of supporting our troops in Iraq and continuing to deal with the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. Certainly everyone agrees that these things have to be done. There are different views as to how they should be done. All of us have to review in our minds where we are, what the basic issues are that have us there, and certainly what is necessary to succeed in our efforts in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have before us a request for $87 billion for the war on terror. That will be dealt with this week, the division there between what is required for the military aspect and then what is required to complete our job in terms of leaving Iraq and Afghanistan in the condition in which democracy and freedom and a lack of terrorism will be where we are in the future. It is good to go back and review some ideas. I would like to talk about where we have been, where we need to go to complete the task we undertook, and talk a little about what we are seeking to do in terms of leaving Iraq in a position to govern itself and to support freedom and peace, and about the fact that we hear all the time that there was no plan after combat was over. That is not true. There is a plan. The plan is in process. We certainly will continue to carry out that plan. We need resources to do that.”