Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, there will be a number of amendments offered in the next little while by Mr. Garamendi, by Ms. Lee, myself and Mr. Jones and by others all in various ways seeking to speed our exit from Afghanistan. I support them all. Two weeks ago, the President proposed that we continue fighting in Afghanistan for at least 3\1/2\ more years. In those 3\1/2\ years, more of our soldiers will die, more of our Treasury will be spent and, in the end, we will not be any closer to creating a stable Afghanistan or to enhancing our safety. The whole premise of this war is wrong. Fighting in Afghanistan does not enhance the security of the United States. Ten years ago 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 the CIA tells us that there are now fewer than 100 al Qaeda personnel in all of Afghanistan. So why are we still fighting there? Why will we still have 70,000 troops in Afghanistan at the end of 2012, troops who will continue to risk their lives every day in a war that has already claimed too many American lives? And we will continue pouring billions of dollars into an intractable mess when we should be devoting taxpayer funds to our own economy, to our own jobs, our own housing, our own social programs and our own education. Afghanistan is in the middle of what is so far a 35-year civil war.…”