Jay Rockefeller: “A war will always involve risk and uncertainty. That is especially the case when we are dealing with a dangerous…”

“A war will always involve risk and uncertainty. That is especially the case when we are dealing with a dangerous dictator like Saddam Hussein, who has used illegal; weapons before, and who knows that in this instance, war will not end until he is removed. We should never be over-confident, and must go into this knowing that our troops will face real risks. But we can take heart that never, in the history of mankind, have there been Armed Forces better prepared to meet the challenges that come their way. In skill, in technological sophistication, and in fighting spirit, our troops continue to set new benchmarks the world has never seen. Never in modern history has there been a fighting force so clearly superior to all its competitors. We now stand at an important threshold in our Nation's history, and our national security. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has altered America's security forever. Before 2001, we believed that we could only be threatened by another superpower--and the demise of the Soviet Union made us think that threats to America's homeland had more or less vanished. On September 11, we learned how wrong we were. In the coming years, the spread of weapons of mass destruction--to rogue governments, and to terrorist groups in the developing world-- will be America's most important national security challenge.”