SPEECHES SHOW DEEP DIVIDE
Excerpts of floor speeches given Tuesday in the Senate on Iraq:
"... the terrorists are in this war to win it. The question is: Are we? Withdrawing before there is a stable and legitimate Iraqi authority would turn Iraq into a failed state and a terrorist sanctuary, in the heart of the Middle East. We have seen a failed state emerge after U.S. disengagement once before, and it cost us terribly. In pre-9/11 Afghanistan, terrorists found sanctuary to train and plan attacks with impunity. We know that today there are terrorists in Iraq who are planning attacks against Americans. We cannot make this fatal mistake twice."
-- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
"The question is: Do we continue to send our kids in the middle of a meat grinder, based on a policy that is fundamentally flawed? ... If we don't start bringing home combat forces within the next few months, get them out of the midst of a civil war, we will have so soured the American people on the ability to do even the things that need be done that this president and the next president will be left with absolutely no option -- absolutely no option -- but to withdraw totally from that area and let the chips fall where they may."
-- Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.
"... the enemy is on the run, but here in Congress, in Washington, some members seem to be on the run -- chased, I fear, by public opinion polls. ... I will say to my colleagues today that this war in Iraq will never be lost by our military on the ground in Iraq. The war in Iraq can only be lost with a loss of political will here at home, and perhaps with a loss of political will in Iraq."
-- Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-07-10-iraq-congress_N.htm?csp=1