Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise this morning to talk about the United States strategy in Afghanistan. However troubling the recent leak of classified documents, the topics discussed in those documents confirm some of the difficulty we face as a country today in Afghanistan. Much of what was reported in the newspapers the last couple of days is, frankly, not news, but a review of what we already knew, that corruption continues to plague the Afghan Government, the performance of the Afghan National Army and police is uneven and at times problematic, and the Taliban have been emboldened in recent years. As I said, this is all information we knew. It might have more details about it, some more reliable than others. But the release of these documents should, at the same time, help to sharpen our focus on all of those issues and more, and ask the tough questions, as is our responsibility in the Senate in a time of war. This year, 2010, has already been the deadliest year on record in Afghanistan. We have new military leadership on the ground, General Petraeus, and assurances from the administration that civil-military relations are strong. Two weeks ago, Ambassador Holbrook appeared before the Foreign Relations Committee where he described the civilian component of our engagement in Afghanistan. Our regular reports from the administration are instructive and do indeed show that we are making progress in some areas. But the overall picture is not encouraging. Casualties are up.…”