Political Quotes

“I assure my colleague that I fully anticipate we will have further debates on the very issues that have been of concern to my colleague from Colorado during the Defense appropriations bill, which we will be following up with at the conclusion of work on this bill. But I point out that it has not all been lost. I will give the Senator specific examples. A number of us have indicated a desire to have some of our troops brought home as early as possible, and the President initiated, after testimony by General Petraeus, the steps to start bringing our troops home, some elements of them, before Christmas. He laid out a program for reduction in forces with an objective to be at what we call a presurge force level by late next spring or very early next summer. So the voices in this Chamber are being heard. I know personally that the President is quite anxious, more so than most, to bring our forces home, but only after achievement of the goals for which heavy sacrifices have been made. We are now crossing 3,800 who have been lost and many others wounded. We must be certain that great sacrifice was not in vain. I thank the Chair, and I thank my colleague.”