Dusty Johnson: “Another issue about which I will share some thoughts with my colleagues today is my hope--and I think it is shared by…”

“Another issue about which I will share some thoughts with my colleagues today is my hope--and I think it is shared by our entire Nation--that this election in Iraq is the beginning of a new era, beginning of a greater era of stability and opportunity for the United States to diminish its presence in that very troubled place. My own oldest son served in combat in Iraq, and I appreciate profoundly the sacrifices and the risks and the courage of so many who have served our Nation there and in other dangerous places around the world. We have this hope while at the same time recognizing that one election does not a democracy make; that the potential for ongoing violence, for chaos in many parts of that difficult country remain, and the election will be viewed more credibly by some than by others. I am pleased the turnout seems to be significant, seems to be supportive, certainly, in the Kurdish and Shiite regions; less so in the Sunni areas where most of the violence has centered. Nonetheless, it is our hope this is a beginning, a start, at least, to the point where we can begin to take troops at some near rather than later time back home to the United States. We have paid a dear price. We are expending in the range of $2 billion per week in Iraq, in a country that was a regional threat, was not involved in international terror, but which was a regional threat to its neighbors at one time.”