Quote du Jour: Leahy on Supporting the Troops

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT): Now, Secretary [of Defense] Gates, we've heard time and again... that, if we disagree with the administration's policy in Iraq, we don't support the troops.

We hear it from the vice president. We heard it in the midterm elections. I've never heard it from you, sir. But I suspect, when we debate this supplemental, those of us who will question the administration's policy in Iraq will hear it again.

As the father of a former Marine, I'm tired of it. I think it's beneath a country that's always cherished the right to disagree. It's one of the things we fight for in this country.

We ought to talk about what's right for the troops. In that regard, to say, are we supporting the troops, we have asked -- senators on both sides of the aisle have asked for proper armor for them, for proper training for them. They didn't get either before they were sent into Iraq. Many are still not getting proper armor.

And it wasn't right to subject them to substandard conditions at Walter Reed hospital, and to a bureaucratic nightmare that's reminiscent of a Kafka novel.

I appreciate the way you've responded to the Walter Reed scandal. I told you that before we went in there. I wanted to make sure people understand. I was glad to see you speak out. I was glad to see General Cody speak out of the bureaucratic mumble-jumble about how great those conditions were.

Neither you nor I would want a member of our family to have to be put in such a situation. And we would hope that never would a member of our family be so badly damaged.

Our soldiers are returning with serious mental illnesses; they're not getting the help they need; serious physical illnesses, not getting the help they need. We have alarming rates of domestic abuse, of divorce. We have families destroyed by it.

They're not getting the help.

The vice president doesn't mention this when he says we're winning in Iraq. He says we're winning because Saddam Hussein is dead and Iraq has a new constitution. He says nothing about the catastrophe we've unleashed on the Iraqi people.

And nobody wants to talk about the fact that, when the Congress said -- united, Democratic members and Republican members -- "Go get Osama bin Laden," this administration dropped the ball.

I don't think that the fighting bears any resemblance to the war that Congress authorized or our soldiers were trained for. Whether you voted for going into Iraq or not, I don't think it's another $80 billion to keep our troops bogged down in Iraq.

If -- if -- we're going to have a pro-American democratic government there, how long? How long will it take? How much money? How many more of these open-ended supplementals?

And I look at this one, where half of it doesn't say what it's going for. How long are we going to have to do that?