Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I do want to start our morning business time to talk about the President's speech last night, when he was talking to…”

“I do want to start our morning business time to talk about the President's speech last night, when he was talking to those wonderful soldiers at Fort Bragg, NC, and laying out for the American people not only the victories and the successes we are having in Iraq but also talking about the hard pull that we are making, that those soldiers are making. I thought the President's candor was refreshing. He did not say: This is all hunky-dory. He said this is a long, hard road. He said: In the beginning, I said it would be. It has certainly proven to be. I think he was candid about exactly where we are, that we have had some great successes, and we have had some setbacks. Certainly, the vote of the Iraqi people was a huge success. That has set the stage for the next phase of trying to secure Iraq and making a difference in the Middle East. When people talk about what is happening in Iraq, I do not think we hear enough about how much better off the Iraqi people are today. Oh, yes, it is hard to see suicide bombers taking innocent lives. It is. But remember how many innocent lives were taken by Saddam Hussein. When Saddam Hussein was taking innocent lives, there was no hope for those people. There was no way out. Today innocent lives are being taken, but they are not being taken in vain. They are being taken in a cause for freedom that will end in democracy for Iraq. That is what the President laid out last night.…”