Ted Poe: “I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. War is expensive; and it should not be measured in the cost of money, which has…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. War is expensive; and it should not be measured in the cost of money, which has been, really, the discussion today. I have the greatest respect for Mr. Jones and Mr. Rohrabacher and you, too, Mr. Kucinich, but this is an important issue before us. Today, as we are here in the House of Representatives, Mark Wells is being buried. He was killed on March 5, representing us in Afghanistan. He had been to Iraq. And, yes, he is of Irish heritage, so his family decided, ``We want to have his service on St. Patrick's Day.'' I talked to his father, Burl, earlier this week. And Burl is proud of his son's service, and he is proud of America's service in Afghanistan. And Burl told me, he said: ``Congressman Poe, it is my fear that there are dark days ahead for America because we may not choose to persevere.'' And what I believe he meant by that was that his son and others who have died for this country, died for that concept of freedom, people that live after them, our soldiers that are over there, and we who make decisions, may not persevere and finish this war. War is hard. It is expensive. And America never quits, and America should never quit in this war. Our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan have always had the policy and philosophy: America will get weary. Americans will quit. They don't have the stomach for it.…”