Burgess Owens: “we are all glad that Saddam Hussein has been dethroned. It is better for the world. It is better for Iraq. But the cost…”

“we are all glad that Saddam Hussein has been dethroned. It is better for the world. It is better for Iraq. But the cost is too great and has been too great in dollars, and we now are considering another $87 billion. We have already invested more than $70 billion. The regular defense budget is also enormous, and that has been expended, and there is no end in sight. We will have more requests for more money. The cost has been too great. We have not achieved any greater amount of security from terrorism. In fact, we are less secure from terrorism now than we were before we invaded Iraq. We have been forced to concentrate all of our energies, all of our priorities, our best minds, everything has been concentrated in Iraq, ignoring the threat in Afghanistan and the borders of Pakistan. The overwhelming burden of the Iraq blunder, however, has been placed on the backs of working families. The actual troops out there are from working families. We all support our troops. We all want to do whatever is necessary to make certain that those troops come home. We want to do whatever is necessary to support them to guarantee that they have a chance to come home. The overwhelming burden of the Iraq blunder, however, should not remain on the backs of working families. Mismanagement should not cause more unnecessary suffering and more death among working families, relatives of people who are from working families.”