Pete Sessions: “We really need to do this. We voted after a full debate this summer to give General Petraeus a chance, asked him to come…”

“We really need to do this. We voted after a full debate this summer to give General Petraeus a chance, asked him to come back and report in September. We voted 80 to 14 to fund the surge, and General Petraeus came back with positive reports in September. But it was early. We were not sure what was going to be the true trend. Since September, the situation in Iraq has improved to a degree I did not expect possible. The casualties are down two-thirds from earlier in the summer. It appears al-Qaida is completely on the run. Great progress has been made. It is unthinkable at this point, after all we have been through, the difficult times we had this summer, when progress is being made clearly, indisputably, that we would now jerk the rug out from under our soldiers. We have to do this. We need Senator Reid to quit saying we are losing and quit saying this is not working, while our soldiers are making progress. How demoralizing is that? I urge my colleagues to vote to support our troops at this critical point as we are making progress.”