Mark Warner: “I, too, have traveled to the region, as has the Senator from Arizona. It was clear to me that there is a direct…”

“I, too, have traveled to the region, as has the Senator from Arizona. It was clear to me that there is a direct correlation between the efforts to repair the infrastructure in Iraq and, frankly, lowering what is in the minds of us every day: the danger to the individual men and women of the Armed Forces and the coalition forces. On every vote I cast in connection with this important measure, I have focused and faced that soldier patroling in Iraq and said: Does this help him or her, or not? Yes, any student of history knows that democracy cannot take hold where there are no fundamental services that allow people to deal with issues other than their own survival. And unless this democracy moves forward, then the forces in opposition grow and the risk to American lives is obvious.”