Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I regret what I am about to say could have been and was said a year ago. Not much has changed, but more lives have been destroyed and more billions of dollars have been wasted, all to no intelligent purpose. The whole premise of the Afghanistan war is wrong. The rationale for the war is to fight al Qaeda, but most of the day-to-day fighting is against an entrenched Taliban insurgency that will outlast any foreign fighters. Fighting in Afghanistan does not enhance the security of the United States in any way. In 2001, we were attacked on 9/11 by al Qaeda. Al Qaeda had bases in Afghanistan, and at that time it made sense to go in and destroy those bases--and we did. But that took about 3 weeks. We should have withdrawn after those 3 weeks. The CIA told us a couple of years ago that there are fewer than 100 al Qaeda personnel in all of Afghanistan. So why do we still have 70,000 troops there, troops who will continue to risk their lives every day in a war that has already claimed far too many lives? And why should we continue pouring billions of dollars into an intractable mess when we should be devoting those funds to our own economy, our own jobs, our own schools, our own bridges and roads and highways, our own housing, social programs, and education? Afghanistan is in the middle of what is, so far, a 35-year civil war. We do not have either the need or the ability to determine the winner in that war, which is what we're trying to do.…”