Political Quotes

“this whole debate regarding what the Senate should do and how to send the right messages regarding Iraq war policy is important, but the most important message the Senate can send, to me, would be to our troops and to our potential enemies. Everybody in America understands the war is not going well. Those who don't understand it are in denial because it clearly has not been the success we were hoping for. The new strategy we are about to embark on, the Petraeus doctrine, for lack of a better word, I do believe has the best chance left for us to succeed, and additional troops in Iraq can make a huge difference. We have been able to clear in the past but never hold. We don't need any more combat power to clear. We have won every battle we have ever been in with the insurgents. But we have been unable to hold the territory. Mr. President, 17,500 more troops in Baghdad would allow us to hold territory for the purpose of political reconciliation. The ultimate question for the body is how to bring out the best in the Iraqi political leadership. Some say we need to send a strong message that we are going to leave at a date certain, threaten to cut off funding for the Iraqi military, quit providing security to political leaders in Iraq. My answer is that democracy is hard without being shot at.”